title: Secular trend of dental development in Dutch children.
abstract: Many studies have established dental age standards for different populations; however, very few studies have investigated whether dental development is stable over time on a population level. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze changes in dental maturity in Dutch children born between 1961 and 2004. We used 2,655 dental panoramic radiographs of 2- to 16-year-old Dutch children from studies performed in three major cities in the Netherlands. Based on a trend in children born between 1961 and 1994, we predicted that a child of a certain age and gender born in 1963 achieved the same dental maturity on average, 1.5 years later than a child of the same age born 40 years later. After adjusting for the birth year of a child in the analysis, the regression coefficient of the city variable was reduced by 56.6% and it remained statistically significant. The observed trend from 1961 to 1994 was extrapolated to 9- to 10-year-old children born in 2002-2004, and validation with the other samples of children with the same characteristics showed that 95.9%-96.8% of the children had dental maturity within the 95% of the predicted range. Dental maturity score was significantly and positively associated with the year of birth, gender, and age in Dutch children, indicating a trend in earlier dental development during the observation period, 1961-2004. These findings highlight the necessity of taking the year of birth into account when assessing dental development within a population with a wider time span.
authors.affiliation: The Generation R Study Group, ErasmusMC University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Special Dental Care and Orthodontics, ErasmusMC University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Strahinja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vucic
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Vries
authors.forename: Paul H C
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Eilers
authors.forename: Sten P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Willemsen
authors.forename: Mette A R
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kuijpers
authors.forename: Birte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Prahl-Andersen
authors.forename: Vincent W V
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Jaddoe
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hofman
authors.forename: Eppo B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Wolvius
authors.forename: Edwin M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Ongkosuwito
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth; D000367:Age Factors; D000885:Anthropology, Physical; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D009805:Odontogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D009811:Odontometry; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: age estimation; age standards; anthropology; dental maturity; year of birth