Abstract
The aim of the present paper was to improve and expand research with a larger number of children from various European countries and to provide a common formula useful for all these countries. Orthopantomographs taken from 2,652 European Caucasian children (1,382 boys, 1,270 girls) aged between 4 and 16 years were analyzed. The children came from Croatia, Germany, Kosovo, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK. Following the pilot study, subjects’ age was modeled as a function of gender (g), morphological variables (predictors) × 5(second premolar), s (sum of normalized open apices) N 0, and the first-order interaction between s and N 0. The results showed that all these variables contributed significantly to the fit, so that all were included in the regression model, yielding the following linear regression formula: Age = 8.387 + 0.282 g − 1.692 × 5 + 0.835 N 0 − 0.116 s − 0.139 s × N 0, where g is a variable, 1 for males and 0 for females. The equation explained 86.1% (R 2 = 0.861) of total deviance. The median of the residuals (=observed age minus predicted age) was −0.114 years, with (RefB.2) interquartile range = 1.22 years.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Bejtulla Zeqiri Department of Orthodontics, University of Prishtina, Kosovo; José L. Prieto, Laboratorio de Antropología y Odontología Forense, Instituto Anatómico Forense, Madrid, Spain; Hrvoje Brkic, School of Dental Medicine, Department of Dental Anthropology, University of Zagreb, Croatia; Brita Willershausen and Ioannis Moschos, Poliklinik für Zahnerhaltungskunde, Klinikum der Johannes Gutenberg, Universität Mainz, Germany; Branko Eremenc, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Helen M. Liversidge, Dental Institute, Bart’s and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK, who kindly supplied sample data from their respective countries.
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Cameriere, R., De Angelis, D., Ferrante, L. et al. Age estimation in children by measurement of open apices in teeth: a European formula. Int J Legal Med 121, 449–453 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-007-0179-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-007-0179-1