A critical test of twelve methods for estimating age using radiographic staging of developing teeth on a sample of 6- to 15-year-old children from Mérida, Yucatán (México).

Cross-population applicability of osteological and dental methods is a known issue in forensic anthropology, but very little is known about whether differences between populations are due to ancestry, environment effects, or even the statistical approach utilized for developing the methods. This study wishes to add to the discussion of population-specificity of dental age estimation methods and examine the impact of their statistical basis on their accuracy and precision. These parameters were estimated by testing 12 different dental age estimation techniques on a sample of 182 panoramic radiographs of children between the ages of 6 and 15 years (110 girls and 72 boys) from the city of Mérida in Yucatán, México. None of the 12 methods selected is based on Mexican samples. Dental maturation was scored following and methods tested employed two dental scoring schemes: Moorrees, Fanning, and Hunt's (MFH) 13-/14-stage system and Demirjian's 8-stage system. Results show that methods derived from more geographically specific groups do not fare better or worse than methods developed on more diverse and inclusive international samples, even if no methods specific to Mexicans were tested. While some of the methods performed very well, and they were not based on a Mexican sample, this suggests that population-specific dental age estimation methods may be relatively unimportant or that population differences in dental maturation are very small. Other issues seemed to have a greater impact on accuracy and precision, such as age dependency, inclusion of the third molar in age assessments, age truncation and age heaping in reference samples, the dental scoring scheme used, and how predicted age is calculated mathematically. As such, findings in this study suggest that validation tests of age estimation methods may not be a useful or reliable means to assess population differences and that these differences need to be more systematically assessed if an argument is to be made for the increased accuracy and precision of population-specific methods. The statistical basis of dental prediction methods seems to have a more significant role in their accuracy and precision outside of their reference sample.

Willems method of dental age estimation in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Age estimation from dental developmental stages is considered comparatively more accurate, reliable and precise than other methods used in forensic sciences. Willems method is the revised version of Demirjian method, based on modified dental maturity scores to estimate age of children in years for both the sexes. AIMS: To test the applicability and accuracy level of Willems method of dental age estimation in diverse population samples by quantifying the variations between the chronological and estimated ages of an individual. METHODOLOGY: A systematic search of online databases (Pubmed, Scopus, Embase, Medline, Trip and Web of Science) was performed for identifying the articles utilizing Willems dental maturity scaling method for age estimation in children. All the research articles published in peer-reviewed English language journals between 2001 and January 2017 were included for present systematic review and meta-analysis. RESULTS: Out of the total 973 selected articles; thirty one studies were recruited for qualitative analysis and out of them, 15 studies were selected/identified for quantitative and meta-analysis. It was found that Willems method overestimates the age of children to a comparatively lesser extent (-0.04 and -0.02 years) than the Demirjian method (around six months). CONCLUSION: Willems method of dental age estimation gives comparatively lesser overestimations of age than other methods reported in the available literature and is thus, accurate and reliable enough to be utilized for forensic purposes.