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Accuracy of the Demirjian and Willems methods of dental age estimation for children from central southern China

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of the Demirjian method and the Demirjian method as revised by Willems for age estimation based on orthopantomograms from central southern Chinese Han population aged 8–16 years. Discrepancies between chronological and estimated ages were statistically evaluated by analyzing 1249 orthopantomograms from 603 girls and 646 boys. Using the Demirjian method, the mean age estimates underestimated chronological age by 0.03 years (p = 0.48) for girls and overestimated it by 0.03 years (p = 0.59) for boys; these differences with respect to chronological age were not statistically significant. In contrast, the Willems method underestimated chronological age by 0.54 years (p < 0.01) for girls and 0.44 years (p < 0.01) for boys; these differences with respect to chronological age were statistically significant. Compared to the Demirjian method, the overall mean absolute error generated using the Willems method was slightly higher (0.85 and 0.86 years, respectively). Since the Demirjian method was more accurate, we highly recommend that it should be applied when estimating dental age in the Chinese Han population. Further modifications of these two methods for populations from other regions and additional studies of other age groups are warranted.

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Funding

This research was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2017JJ3422) and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine Open Project (KF1815).

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Author notes

  1. Zedeng Yang and Kun Geng contributed equally to this article.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Science, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, No. 172. Tongzipo Road, Changsha, 410013, Hunan Province, China

    Zedeng Yang, Yanfang Liu, Shule Sun, Dan Wen, Jiao Xiao, Yusong Zheng, Jifeng Cai, Lagabaiyila Zha & Ying Liu

  2. Xiangya Stomatological Collage, Central South University, No72. Xiangya Road, Kaifu District, Changsha, Hunan Province, China

    Kun Geng

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  1. Zedeng Yang
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Correspondence to Lagabaiyila Zha or Ying Liu.

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Ethical approval was granted by the ethics committee of XiangYa Stomatological Hospital.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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Informed consent was provided by all individual participants included in the study, according to the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Ying Liu and Lagabaiyila Zha contributed equally to this article; they are joint corresponding author.

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Yang, Z., Geng, K., Liu, Y. et al. Accuracy of the Demirjian and Willems methods of dental age estimation for children from central southern China. Int J Legal Med 133, 593–601 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-018-1924-3

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