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A critical test of twelve methods for estimating age using radiographic staging of developing teeth on a sample of 6- to 15-year-old children from Mérida, Yucatán (México)

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Abstract

Cross-population applicability of osteological and dental methods is a known issue in forensic anthropology, but very little is known about whether differences between populations are due to ancestry, environment effects, or even the statistical approach utilized for developing the methods. This study wishes to add to the discussion of population-specificity of dental age estimation methods and examine the impact of their statistical basis on their accuracy and precision. These parameters were estimated by testing 12 different dental age estimation techniques on a sample of 182 panoramic radiographs of children between the ages of 6 and 15 years (110 girls and 72 boys) from the city of Mérida in Yucatán, México. None of the 12 methods selected is based on Mexican samples. Dental maturation was scored following and methods tested employed two dental scoring schemes: Moorrees, Fanning, and Hunt’s (MFH) 13-/14-stage system and Demirjian’s 8-stage system. Results show that methods derived from more geographically specific groups do not fare better or worse than methods developed on more diverse and inclusive international samples, even if no methods specific to Mexicans were tested. While some of the methods performed very well, and they were not based on a Mexican sample, this suggests that population-specific dental age estimation methods may be relatively unimportant or that population differences in dental maturation are very small. Other issues seemed to have a greater impact on accuracy and precision, such as age dependency, inclusion of the third molar in age assessments, age truncation and age heaping in reference samples, the dental scoring scheme used, and how predicted age is calculated mathematically. As such, findings in this study suggest that validation tests of age estimation methods may not be a useful or reliable means to assess population differences and that these differences need to be more systematically assessed if an argument is to be made for the increased accuracy and precision of population-specific methods. The statistical basis of dental prediction methods seems to have a more significant role in their accuracy and precision outside of their reference sample.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partly supported by a grant from Global Affairs Canada—ELAP Faculty Mobility Program. The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.

Funding

Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México.

Global Affairs Canada—ELAP Faculty Mobility Program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Odontologia, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México

    B. Rodriguez, E. Vega & R. Hoyos

  2. Facultad de Antropologia, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México

    A. Cucina

  3. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    H. F. V. Cardoso

Authors
  1. B. Rodriguez
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  2. A. Cucina
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  3. E. Vega
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  4. R. Hoyos
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  5. H. F. V. Cardoso
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Belia Rodriguez, Hugo Cardoso.

Methodology: Belia Rodriguez, Hugo Cardoso.

Formal analysis and investigation: Hugo Cardoso, Belia Rodriguez.

Writing—original draft preparation: Hugo Cardoso.

Writing—review and editing: Belia Rodriguez, Elma Vega, Andrea Cucina, Rafael Hoyos.

Funding acquisition: Belia Rodriguez, Hugo Cardoso.

Resources: Belia Rodriguez, Elma Vega, Rafael Hoyos.

Supervision: Andrea Cucina, Hugo Cardoso.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. F. V. Cardoso.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México (letter dated June 25, 2015).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Rodriguez, B., Cucina, A., Vega, E. et al. A critical test of twelve methods for estimating age using radiographic staging of developing teeth on a sample of 6- to 15-year-old children from Mérida, Yucatán (México). Int J Legal Med 135, 2457–2467 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-021-02689-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-021-02689-7

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