title: Assessment of legal adult age of 18 by measurement of open apices of the third molars: Study on the Albanian sample.
abstract: The third molar tooth is one of the few anatomical structures in development available for estimating the age of individuals in the late adolescence. This study tests the accuracy of Cameriere's cut-off value of the third molar index (I3M) in assessing legal adult age of 18 years in an Albanian sample. For this purpose, a sample of orthopantomograms (OPTs) of 286 living subjects (152 female and 134 male) aged between 15 and 22 years was analyzed. Intra-rater and inter-raters agreement of I3M were 0.998 and 0.998, respectively and Cohen Kappa for intra-rater and inter-rater agreement in decision on adult or minor was 1.0 and 1.0, respectively. Age distribution gradually decreases as I3M increases in both males and females. The mean age of females is higher than that of males when I3M is between 0.04 and 0.08. Sensitivity test for males was 94.1%, with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 85.6-98.4%, and specificity was 90.9% (95%CI 81.3-96.6%). The proportion of correctly classified individuals was 92.5%, with a 95%CI of (86.7%, 96.4%). For females, the sensitivity test was 75.4%, with a 95%CI of (63.1%, 85.2%) and specificity was 96.6%, with a 95%CI of (90.3%, 99.3%). The proportion of correctly classified individuals was 87.5%, with a 95%CI of (81.2%, 92.3%). The results indicate that Cameriere's cut-off value of the third molar index (I3M=0.08) is useful in discriminating between Albanian adults and juveniles, and encourage us to test its suitability for determining the adult age in individuals from other populations.
authors.affiliation: AgEstimation Project, Institute of Legal Medicine, Macerata, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cameriere
authors.affiliation: Section of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Santoro
authors.affiliation: Section of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roca
authors.affiliation: Section of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Piercarlo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lozito
authors.affiliation: Section of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Introna
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Macerata, Italy.
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cingolani
authors.affiliation: Departments of Research in Biomedicine and Health and Dental Medicine, University of Split School of Medicine and University Hospital Centre Split, Croatia. Electronic address: igalic@mefst.hr.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Galić
authors.affiliation: AgEstimation Project, Institute of Legal Medicine, Macerata, Italy; Department of Biomedical Science and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ferrante
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D000415:Albania; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008964:Molar, Third / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000254:growth & development*; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019227:Tooth Apex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000254:growth & development*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Age estimation; Cut-off; Forensic Anthropology Population Data; Forensic sciences; Third molar index; Unaccompanied minor