title: Age estimation in children by measurement of open apices in teeth: a European formula.
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) x 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 x 5 + 0.835 N 0 - 0.116 s - 0.139 s x N 0, where g is a variable, 1 for males and 0 for females. The equation explained 86.1% (R2 = 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Macerata, Via Don Minzoni 9, 62100 Macerata, Italy. r.cameriere@unimc.it
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cameriere
authors.forename: Danilo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: De Angelis
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ferrante
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scarpino
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cingolani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D019227:Tooth Apex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*