title: Dental maturity of Caucasian children in the Indianapolis area.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to compare chronologic and dental age using Demirjian's method.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred and fifty-seven panoramic radiographs of healthy 5- to 17.5-year-old Caucasian children in the Indianapolis area were evaluated using Demirjian's 7 tooth method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for agreement with Demirjian was 0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 0.97). The ICC for repeatability of the investigator was 0.97 (95% CI=0.95, 0.99). Calculated dental age was significantly greater than chronologic age by 0.59 years (P<.001). There was no significant difference in the mean difference in ages between sexes (P=.73). Medicaid subjects had a significantly higher (P<.001) mean difference (0.82 years) than private insurance subjects (0.32 years). There was a significant negative correlation between the chronologic age and the difference in ages (r=-0.29, P<.001). Overweight (P<.001) and obese (P=.004) subjects were significantly more dentally advanced than normal (P=.35) and underweight (P=.42) subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Demirjian's method has high inter- and intraexaminer repeatability. Caucasian children in the Indianapolis area are more advanced dentally than the French-Canadian children studied by Demirjian. Difference between dental age and chronologic age varies depending on the age of the child, socioeconomic status, and body mass index.
authors.affiliation: Assistant clinical professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis, ID, USA. lweddell@iupui.edu
authors.forename: Lauren S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Weddell
authors.forename: James K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hartsfield
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D007347:Insurance, Dental; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology; D050177:Overweight / Q000503:physiopathology; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States; D044465:White People