title: Interrelationship between dental age and chronological age in Somali children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare dental age (DA) with chronological age (CA) in Somali and white Caucasian children, resident in Sheffield.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Paediatric dentistry clinic, Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, Sheffield.
  
  
  METHODS
  Somali children under 16 years of age and age- and gender-matched white Caucasian subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Dental age was determined for each subject, using their existing panoramic radiographs. Comparisons of the difference between dental age and chronological age (DA-CA) were made for gender and ethnic group, using independent sample t tests at the 0.05 level of significance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sample group comprised 162 subjects: 84 Somali and Caucasian boys (mean age 10.55 years) and 78 Somali and Caucasian girls (mean age 11.24 years). The mean difference between DA and CA was found to be 1.01 years for Somali boys, 0.19 years for Caucasian boys, 1.22 years for Somali girls, and 0.52 years for Caucasian girls. The difference between DA and CA was significantly greater in Somali subjects than in Caucasian children. A few Somali subjects showed a marked discrepancy between chronological age and dental age (range -1.75 to 5.42 years), which was most evident in 8- to 12-year-old children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Somali children are significantly more dentally advanced than their Caucasian peers. This finding highlights the need for population-specific dental development standards for accurate dental age assessment.
authors: Department of Child Dental Health, School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield, UK.
authors: L E
authors: LE
authors: Davidson
authors: H D
authors: HD
authors: Rodd
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D044383:Black People; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002910:Chronology as Topic; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012998:Somalia; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D044465:White People