title: A comparison of Demirjian's four dental development methods for forensic age assessment.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the comparative accuracy of Demirjian's four dental development methods for forensic age estimation in the Western Australian population. A sample comprising 143 individuals aged 4.6 to 14.5 years were assessed using Demirjian's four methods for dental development (original 7-tooth: M(2), M(1), PM(2), PM(1), C, I(2), and I(1); revised 7-tooth: M(2), M(1), PM(2), PM(1), C, I(2), and I(1); 4-tooth: M(2), M(1), PM(2), and PM(1); and an alternate 4-tooth: M(2), PM(2), PM(1), and I(1)). When comparing all four methods, the 4-tooth method overestimated age in both males and females by 0.04 and 0.25 years, respectively. The original 7-tooth was least accurate for males, while the original 7-tooth, the revised 7-tooth, and the alternate 4-tooth were unsuitable for females. Therefore, we recommend the 4-tooth method to be used for forensic age estimation in Western Australian males and females, as it has the lowest overall mean deviation and the highest accuracy.
authors.affiliation: School of Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia. sara.flood@uwa.edu.au
authors.forename: Sara J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Flood
authors.forename: Warren J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Charles E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Oxnard
authors.forename: Berwin A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Turlach
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McGeachie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005553:Forensic Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D014074:Tooth Calcification