title: Dental age estimation in Brazilian HIV children using Willems' method.
abstract: The notification of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Brazilian children was first reported in 1984. Since that time more than 21 thousand children became infected. Approximately 99.6% of the children aged less than 13 years old are vertically infected. In this context, most of the children are abandoned after birth, or lose their relatives in a near future, growing with uncertain identification. The present study aims to estimate the dental age of Brazilian HIV patients in face of healthy patients paired by age and gender. The sample consisted of 160 panoramic radiographs of male (n: 80) and female (n: 80) patients aged between 4 and 15 years (mean age: 8.88 years), divided into HIV (n: 80) and control (n: 80) groups. The sample was analyzed by three trained examiners, using Willems' method, 2001. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was applied to test intra- and inter-examiner agreement, and Student paired t-test was used to determine the age association between HIV and control groups. Intra-examiner (ICC: from 0.993 to 0.997) and inter-examiner (ICC: from 0.991 to 0.995) agreement tests indicated high reproducibility of the method between the examiners (P<0.01). Willems' method revealed discrete statistical overestimation in HIV (2.86 months; P=0.019) and control (1.90 months; P=0.039) groups. However, stratified analysis by gender indicate that overestimation were only concentrated in male HIV (3.85 months; P=0.001) and control (2.86 months; P=0.022) patients. The significant statistical differences are not clinically relevant once only few months of discrepancy are detected applying Willems' method in a Brazilian HIV sample, making this method highly recommended for dental age estimation of both HIV and healthy children with unknown age.
authors: Department of Stomatology, Federal University of Paraná, Av. Prefeito Lothário Meissner, 632, Jardim Botânico, 80210-170 Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors: Rafael Boschetti
authors: RB
authors: de Souza
authors: Department of Stomatology, Federal University of Paraná, Av. Prefeito Lothário Meissner, 632, Jardim Botânico, 80210-170 Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors: Luciana Reichert
authors: LR
authors: da Silva Assunção
authors: Department of Forensic Odontology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors: Ademir
authors: A
authors: Franco
authors: Department of Stomatology, Federal University of Paraná, Av. Prefeito Lothário Meissner, 632, Jardim Botânico, 80210-170 Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors: Fábio Marzullo
authors: FM
authors: Zaroni
authors: Department of Radiology, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors: Rejane Maria
authors: RM
authors: Holderbaum
authors: Department of Stomatology, Federal University of Paraná, Av. Prefeito Lothário Meissner, 632, Jardim Botânico, 80210-170 Curitiba, PR, Brazil. Electronic address: angelfnandes@hotmail.com.
authors: Ângela
authors: Â
authors: Fernandes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005553:Forensic Dentistry; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D014070:Tooth / Q000254:growth & development*
keywords: Brazil; Children; Dental age estimation; Forensic anthropology population data; HIV; Willem's method