Questions of logic in Atlas methods of dental age estimation.

PURPOSE: To review aspects of the underlying methodological procedures in Atlas Methods of Dental Age Estimation (DAE) research publications. Attention is paid to issues of Reference Data supporting the Atlases, details of analytic procedures in the development of the Atlases, the statistical reporting of results of Age Estimation (AE), the problems of expressing uncertainty, and the viability of conclusions in the reporting of DAE studies. METHODS: Research reports utilizing Dental Panoramic Tomographs for creating Reference Data Sets (RDS) were studied to unravel the processes of creating Atlases with a view to determining the appropriate procedures for developing numerical RDS and compiling them into an Atlas format to enable DAE of child subjects without birth records. RESULTS: The five different Atlases reviewed gave several different results in terms of AE. The possible causes of this were discussed - namely inadequate representation of Reference Data (RD) and lack of clarity in expressing uncertainty. It is suggested that the method of compiling Atlases needs to be more clearly defined. The yearly intervals described by some of the Atlases fails to take account of the Uncertainty of Estimates which is usually slightly greater than ±2½ years. CONCLUSION: The review of published Atlas design papers in the field of DAE shows a number of different study designs, statistical procedures, and presentational styles, particularly with regard to the statistical procedures and findings. These show that Atlas methods can only be accurate to what amounts to at best a year. RECOMMENDATIONS: Atlas methods lack the accuracy and precision of other methods of AE an example of which is the Simple Average Method (SAM).1 This inherent lack of accuracy must be taken into account when using Atlas methods for AE.

Dental Age Assessment of United States Black and White Children: Performance Reliability of Harris and McKee (1990).

ABSTRACT: Medicolegal authorities use forensic dental age assessment of children to establish a biologic profile to assist in human identification, answer questions related to immigration, and answer questions used to substantiate eligibility for social benefits. The goal of this study was to assess the performance reliability of the child dental age assessment data previously published for White and Black children in the United States. A total of 432 dental panoramic radiographs were obtained from 3 geographic locations in the United States: Memphis, Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Saint Louis, Missouri. Radiographs were staged, and the estimated age was calculated using the previously published data. Multiple age assessments were conducted to determine the effect of excluding certain teeth on estimated age. The results indicated estimated ages using the previously published reference data set were accurate and concordant with known chronologic age across the ancestral, sex, and geographic categories. The results also indicated that the known chronologic age fell within one standard deviation of the estimated age more than the statistical expectation for most categories. Excluding canines provided the most accurate estimation of known chronologic age.

Reliability of third molar development for age estimation in a Texas Hispanic population: a comparison study.

Evaluating third molars from 950 Hispanic individuals aged 12-22 years using Demirjian's schematic for crown and root formation found that Hispanic third molar development was 8-18 months faster than American Caucasians as reported by Mincer, Harris and Berryman in 1993. This represents a statistically significant increase. Earlier development was more apparent in the later stages F through H. Hispanic males reach developmental stages faster than Hispanic females and maxillary third molars reach developmental stages faster than mandibular third molars in both sexes. The earliest age observed for stages B-H (e.g., Stage H first observed at age 13.92 years in females) and the oldest age observed for Stages B-G were developed to facilitate age prediction of unknown individuals. Prediction tables for minimum and maximum age for an observed stage (e.g., if a female maxillary third molar is stage F it means she is older than 13 years) for each sex-jaw group were calculated.