Department of Orthodontics, Dentofacial Orthopedics and Pedodontics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin, Aßmannshauser Str. 4-6, 14197 Berlin, Germany.
College of Health and Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, P.O. Box 34110, Doha, Qatar.
Forensic Sci Int. 2019 Oct;303:109927. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.109927. Epub 2019 Aug 8.
The aim of this study was to test the accuracy of Demirjian's method for dental age (DA) estimation on north German children, to adapt the method used in case of inaccuracy in this sample and to construct dental maturity percentile curves for this population. Orthopantomograms (OPGs) of 1260 north German children (566 males and 694 females) aged 5-17 years were used from patients' records of the Department of Orthodontics, Dentofacial Orthopedics and Pedodontics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. Demirjian's dental maturity scale for the seven left mandibular teeth was applied to the first sample (951 OPGs) to estimate the DA and compare it to the chronological age (CA) of each child. For the adaptation of Demirjian's method on this sample of radiographs, new weighted maturity scores were created by the use of linear regression. Polynomial percentile curves of the total dental maturity in comparison to the CA are presented. The second sample (309 OPGs) was used to evaluate the adapted method and compare it to Demirjian's method. Demirjian's method overestimated the mean CA of boys by 0.46±0.86 years (mean difference±standard deviation) and of girls by 0.55±0.95 years. The new adapted weighted scores estimated the CA of boys (0.07±0.82 years) and girls (-0.04±0.82 years) more accurately. The adapted method showed no significant difference between DA and CA. The method by Demirjian et al., when applied to north German children, significantly overestimated most age cohorts for both sexes. The adapted north German weighted scores and percentile curves showed a notable improvement in age estimation and were more reliable for CA estimation and DA assessment.
本研究旨在检验 Demirjian 法在评估德国北部儿童牙龄（DA）时的准确性，在本样本中对该方法进行调整，并为该人群构建牙成熟百分位曲线。从德国柏林夏里特医科大学正畸、正颌和儿童牙科系患者记录中获取了 1260 名年龄在 5-17 岁的德国北部儿童（男 566 名，女 694 名）的全景片（OPG）。应用 Demirjian 法评估第一组样本（951 个 OPG）的 7 颗左侧下颌恒牙的牙成熟度，以估计 DA，并与每个儿童的实际年龄（CA）进行比较。为了在本样本的 X 光片上调整 Demirjian 法，我们使用线性回归创建了新的加权成熟评分。本文还呈现了与 CA 相关的总牙成熟度的多项式百分位曲线。第二组样本（309 个 OPG）用于评估调整后的方法，并与 Demirjian 法进行比较。Demirjian 法高估了男孩的平均 CA 0.46±0.86 岁（平均差值±标准差），高估了女孩的平均 CA 0.55±0.95 岁。新的调整后的加权评分更准确地估计了男孩（0.07±0.82 岁）和女孩（-0.04±0.82 岁）的 CA。调整后的方法在 DA 与 CA 之间没有显著差异。当应用于德国北部儿童时，Demirjian 等人的方法显著高估了大多数年龄组的男女 CA。调整后的德国北部加权评分和百分位曲线在年龄估计方面有显著改善，在 CA 估计和 DA 评估方面更为可靠。
