title: Estimation of dental age and its comparison with chronological age: accuracy of two radiographic methods.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Accurate age data are always necessary in medicine and dentistry, and are also important to assess maturity and estimate age in a number of disciplines, such as forensic odontology, paediatric and preventive dentistry, orthodontics, etc.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This investigation determines the accuracy of dental age estimation and its comparison with chronological age by two methods: Demirjian's and Willems'.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tooth development was assessed in seven left mandibular teeth from 215 orthopantomograms (OPGs) belonging to healthy children aged 6-15 years selected by convenience sampling, from patients of the Sudha Rustagi College of Dental Sciences & Research, Faridabad, and were staged according to Demirjian's and Willems' scales. The statistical analysis was performed using the unpaired 't'-test and the correlation was analysed using Karl Pearson's correlation coefficients test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, Willems' method was found to be more accurate with a mean age overestimation of 0.36 years (SD = 0.38) in boys and 0.24 years (SD = 0.36) in girls, and Demirjian's method produced a mean overestimation of 0.66 years (SD = 0.41) in boys and 0.56 years (SD = 0.43) in girls, respectively. Also, correlation between the two methods revealed a high coefficient value, 0.9947 for boys and 0.9944 for girls (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the favourable result of Willems' method in comparison with Demirjian's method, this study demonstrated a high correlation coefficient between both chronological and obtained dental age, thus confirming their potential applicability in clinical practice and forensic dentistry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, Sudha Rustagi College of Dental Sciences & Research, Faridabad, India. shekhargrover84@gmail.com
authors.forename: Shekhar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grover
authors.forename: Charu Mohan
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Marya
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Avinash
authors.forename: Nidhi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pruthi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005553:Forensic Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic