Comparison of accuracy of age estimation in Indian children by measurement of open apices in teeth with the London Atlas of tooth development

Authors

  • Preeti Sharma Swami Vivekanand Subharti University
  • Vijay Wadhwan Swami Vivekanand Subharti University MEERUT (UP), 250005

Keywords:

Age estimation, Indian children, Cameriere’s method, London Atlas, forensic odontology.

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the accuracy of two age estimation methods in Indian children by using the open apex method proposed by Cameriere et al and the London Atlas of Tooth Development.
Materials and method: Three hundred and thirty five archived digitised panoramic radiographs of healthy children (165 males and 170 females) in the age group of 5 to 15.99 years were retrieved and analysed. The observations were entered in the SPSS software (Version 19.0). The paired t-test and independent samples t-test were applied to assess the differences between chronological and estimated age in both genders.
Results and conclusion: Inter-observer reliability was found to be excellent with Cronbach Alpha to be 1.000 and 0.997 for Cameriere’s and London Atlas age estimation methods respectively. The difference of 0.59 years (SD ±1.32 years) was highly significant and indicated a consistent underestimation of age using Cameriere’s method. While, applying the London Atlas, the difference of -0.03 years (SD± 0.69 years) was not significant and indicated a little overestimation of age. No significant difference was observed for both genders with the methods. Our results revealed that the methods are reliable for age estimation in Indian children, however, the London Atlas is simpler to use and is more accurate than Cameriere’s method.

Author Biographies

Preeti Sharma, Swami Vivekanand Subharti University

Reader, Department of Oral Pathology,

Subharti Dental College, Subharti University

Vijay Wadhwan, Swami Vivekanand Subharti University MEERUT (UP), 250005

Professor and Head of the Department,

Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology & Oral Microbiology,

Subharti Dental College and Hospital,,

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Published

2020-02-02

How to Cite

Sharma, P., & Wadhwan, V. (2020). Comparison of accuracy of age estimation in Indian children by measurement of open apices in teeth with the London Atlas of tooth development. The Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology - JFOS, 38(1), 39: 47. Retrieved from https://ojs.iofos.eu/index.php/Journal/article/view/1191