A large sample-sized study on dental development of children treated at the Central Dental Clinic (OCEx) of the Brazilian Army.

OBJECTIVES: To test and compare the performance of two radiographic methods for dental age estimation on a large sample of Brazilian boys and girls. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The sample consisted of 1.990 panoramic radiographs of Brazilian children (age: 3-15.9 years) equally balanced based on sex. The sample was distributed into ten age categories, each with up to 200 children. Age estimation was performed with Willems' (2001) and Demirjian's (1973) methods. Estimated (EA) and chronological (CA) ages were compared. The performances of the methods were quantified based on sex and age category. RESULTS: The overall differences between CA and EA for Willems' method in boys and girls were 0.06 and - 0.02, respectively. For Demirjian's method, the differences were 0.60 and 0.74, respectively. The overestimations of Demirjian's method were statistically significant (p < 0.001). Willems' method reached the best outcomes among children between 3 and 12 years, while Demirjian's best performances were between the ages of 7 and 10 years. CONCLUSION: Willems' method led to differences between CA and AE that were acceptable for clinical and forensic practice. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Age estimation may guide clinical decisions based on treatment timing. Validating international tools is necessary to promote evidence-based practice and country-specific application. This study overcame the limitations of previous research to provide a more realistic perspective of the performance of age estimation methods in Brazilian children. Willems' method had a superior performance compared to Demirjian's method and led to outcomes that were better than most studies with the Brazilian population.

Forensic International Dental Database (FIDBv2) for adult age-at-death estimation in multiple forensic contexts: Strengthening the operationalization of the Lamendin criteria in a global scope model.

The aim of this study is to validate the FIDBv2 online procedure for adult age-at-death estimation using root dentine translucency (RDT) and periodontal retraction (PR) of single-rooted teeth in a worldwide sample. The sample includes 4810 teeth of 2559 individuals from 16 countries of America, Europe and Asia. Bias and inaccuracy between documented (DA) and estimated ages (EA) were calculated. Pearson and Intraclass Correlation Coefficients were computed to assess the strength of agreement between pairs of data, while Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z was used to evaluate the statistical significance of the differences. The percentages of correctly estimated cases within different age ranges were obtained to find trends in the reliability of the results. Most of the biases (-4.61-1.31 years) and inaccuracies (4.81-9.72 years) are low. The dispersion of EA increases with age and almost all the DA-EA correlations are above 0.75. DA-RDT and DA-PR correlations are positive, most of the former being high (0.74-0.91), and the latter being low (0.11-0.54). The highest percentages of correct estimations are identified for the ±7.5 and ±10 years ranges, and most comparisons of bias and inaccuracy between countries are non-significant. The high correlations between DA and EA suggest that the method is robust and reliable for a global application. Mean errors are low, with the best results found in the 30-69-year-old cohort. This research supports that the method is effective and accurate for age estimation in forensic contexts worldwide, thus reaffirming it is a generalizable procedure locally and internationally.