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Third molar maturity index (I3M) for assessing age of majority in northern Chinese population

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Abstract

In many countries, assessment of legal age, also known as age of majority, has become increasingly important over the years. In China, individuals older than 18 years of age have full capacity regarding civil conduct and can be tried as an adult for criminal charges. Therefore, from a legal point of view, it is crucial to determine whether an individual is an adult. The developmental degree of the third molar is widely recognized as a suitable site for age estimation in late adolescence. This article uses the third molar maturity index (I3M) with a cutoff value of I3M = 0.08, which was established by Cameriere et al. in 2008, to distinguish whether an individual is a minor or an adult (≥ 18 years of age) in a northern Chinese population. A total of 840 digital orthopantomograms (OPTs) from 420 male and 420 female northern Chinese subjects aged 12 to 25 years were evaluated. It was found that an increase in I3M corresponded to a decrease in chronological age. In our study, I3M = 0.10 showed better accuracy in age discrimination in both men and women. This threshold also resulted in high sensitivity (0.929 and 0.809) and specificity (0.940 and 0.973) in males and females, respectively. The proportion of correctly classified subjects was 0.917 (95% CI, 0.898 to 0.935) in total, 0.938 (95% CI, 0.915 to 0.961) in male and 0.895 (95% CI, 0.866 to 0.925) in female subjects. Bayes post-test probabilities were 0.967 (95% CI, 0.947 to 0.986) in males and 0.983 (95% CI, 0.966 to 0.998) in females. These differences in threshold values between Chinese and Caucasian populations might be because the development of third molars is delayed in the Chinese population compared to the Caucasian population. In conclusion, I3M might be a useful method in legal and forensic practices to determine ages in late adolescence in northern Chinese individuals. However, a specific population should be tested before I3M is used for legal age estimation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Jian-min Yang of the College of Stomatology, Xi’an Jiaotong University for his generous assistance in improving the use of English in the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81701869 and No. 81571859), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. xjj2017168), Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine (No. 17DZ2273200), and Shanghai Forensic Service Platform (No. 16DZ2290900).

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  1. Guang Chu and Ya-hui Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Shaanxi Province for Craniofacial Precision Medicine Research, College of Stomatology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, 98 XiWu Road, Xi’an, 710004, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Guang Chu, Mu-jia Li, Meng-qi Han, Hong Zhou & Yu-cheng Guo

  2. Department of Orthodontics, Stomatological Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, 98 XiWu Road, Xi’an, 710004, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Guang Chu, Mu-jia Li, Meng-qi Han, Zhi-yong Zhang, Hong Zhou & Yu-cheng Guo

  3. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai, 200063, People’s Republic of China

    Ya-hui Wang

  4. College of Medicine and Forensics, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, 76 West Yanta Road, Xi’an, 710004, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Teng Chen

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  1. Guang Chu
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Correspondence to Yu-cheng Guo.

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Chu, G., Wang, Yh., Li, Mj. et al. Third molar maturity index (I3M) for assessing age of majority in northern Chinese population. Int J Legal Med 132, 1759–1768 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-018-1907-4

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