Assessment of dental maturity of Brazilian children aged 6 to 14 years using Demirjian`s method / Avaliação da maturidade dental de crianças brasileiras de 6 a 14 anos usando o método Demirjian's

ABSTRACT

Dental maturity, often expressed as dental age, is an indicator of the biological maturity of growing children. A method for the assessment of dental maturity was first described by Demirjian, and is widely used and accepted, mainly because of its ability to compare different ethnic groups. This is possible, as the maturity scoring system proposed by the method is universal in application, although the conversion to dental age depends on the population considered. Objectives: The aim of this study was to apply Demirjian`s method to Brazilian children aged 6-14 years in order to obtain dental maturity curves for each sex, to compare this data with that obtained by Demirjian, and to determine whether there is a significant correlation between dental maturity and body mass index. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the orthopantomograms, height and weight measurements of 689 healthy children. Curves of dental maturity of males and females were constructed. Results: When compared to the French-Canadian sample of Demirjian, Brazilian males and females were 0ú681 years and 0ú616 years, respectively, more advanced in dental maturity. There was no significant correlation between dental maturity and body mass index