Testing standard methods of dental age estimation by Moorrees, Fanning and Hunt and Demirjian, Goldstein and Tanner on three South African children samples

Abstract

Dental age estimation of juvenile skeletal remains has utilized the methods of Moorrees, Fanning and Hunt (1963) [MFH] and Demirjian, Goldstein and Tanner (1973) [DGT] for many years with various results. The Demirjian et al method has been tested by several authors on their population groups with varying results. The use of these methods to age the skeletal remains of South African children by the author has not been successful. The aim of this study was to test the accuracy of the dental age estimation methods of MFH and DGT on samples of children of different ethnic groups. The study showed that the MFH method consistently under-estimates the age and the method of Demirjian et al over-estimates the ages.