New systems for dental maturity based on seven and four teeth.

An updated system for estimating dental maturity is presented. It extends the original system (Demirjian et al., 1973) based on radiographs of 7 teeth by including two extra stages, and by enlarging the standardizing sample to include 2407 boys and 2349 girls. Percentile standards from ages 2-5 to 17-0 years are presented separately for boys and girls. Scoring systems and percentile standards are presented for two different sets of 4 teeth and a comparison of all three systems is made. It is suggested that these systems may measure somewhat different aspects of dental maturity.