Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Dept. of Legal Medicine and Bioethics, Bucharest, Romania.
Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Dept. of Legal Medicine and Bioethics, Bucharest, Romania.
Leg Med (Tokyo). 2021 Sep;52:101901. doi: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2021.101901. Epub 2021 May 1.
One of the most common ways to assess the age in subadults using dental records is the Demirjian method. As the number of the studies using this method increased significantly in the recent years, and as their results were often conflicting, we investigated the accuracy of the method. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies obtained from Pubmed, using a random-effects model with the DerSimonian-Laird estimator, and raw mean difference for effect size measure. Prediction intervals (at 95%) were used to assess the presence of significant statistical differences between chronological and dental age. Our meta-analysis showed that Demirijan's method overestimated dental age by 0.48 years in girls and 0.51 in boys. Depending on the location and sex, in girls the smallest average overestimation was found in Asia (except India), with a value of 0.36 years, and the largest overestimation in Turkey/Arabia, with a value of 0.66 years. In boys, the smallest average overestimation was found in India (0.45 years), but Asia (except India), Africa - both with 0.46 years and Oceania - with 0.47 years were close, while the largest overestimation was found in Turkey/Arabia, with an average value of 0.63 years. The Demirjian method overestimated the age by about half a year for both sexes. Even if there are some geographical/ethnic differences, they are rather small, making the method useful irrespective of the ethnic profile of the subjects.
评估未成年个体年龄最常用的方法之一是 Demirjian 法。近年来，使用该方法的研究数量显著增加，且结果常常相互矛盾，因此我们对该方法的准确性进行了研究。我们对 Pubmed 中获得的观察性研究进行了系统综述和荟萃分析，使用随机效应模型和 DerSimonian-Laird 估计量，以及原始均数差值作为效应量测量。预测区间（95%）用于评估实际年龄与牙龄之间是否存在显著的统计学差异。我们的荟萃分析表明，Demirjian 法在女孩中高估牙龄 0.48 岁，在男孩中高估牙龄 0.51 岁。根据地理位置和性别不同，在女孩中，最小的平均高估值出现在亚洲（印度除外），为 0.36 岁，最大的高估值出现在土耳其/阿拉伯地区，为 0.66 岁。在男孩中，最小的平均高估值出现在印度（0.45 岁），但亚洲（印度除外）和非洲（均为 0.46 岁）以及大洋洲（0.47 岁）非常接近，最大的高估值出现在土耳其/阿拉伯地区，平均高估值为 0.63 岁。该方法高估了男女的年龄约半年。即使存在一些地理/种族差异，它们也很小，因此该方法在不考虑研究对象的种族特征的情况下仍然有用。
