Dental age assessment in 6- to 14-year old German children: comparison of Cameriere and Demirjian methods.
BACKGROUND
The aim of the study was to compare two frequently used dental age estimation methods for accuracy.


METHODS
A total of 479 panoramic radiographs in age groups 6-14 years from a German population were evaluated. The dental age of 268 boys and 211 girls was assessed by means of the method of Demirjian (1973) and Cameriere (2006) and compared with their actual chronological age.


RESULTS
Demirjan's method showed an overestimation of dental age compared to chronological age in all age groups for boys (mean difference -0.16, p = 0.010, range -0.35 to 0.09), age group 9 showed an underestimation. Using the same method for girls (mean difference -0.18, p = 0.008, range -0.45 to 0.13), an overestimation could also be shown in all age groups except for age groups 8 and 13. Results for Cameriere's method showed for boys (mean difference 0.07, p = 0.314, range -1.38 to 3.83) in age groups 6 to 11 an overestimation, but in age groups 12 to14 an underestimation. The results for girls (mean difference 0.08, p = 0.480, range -1.55 to 4.51) showed an overestimation for age groups from 6 to 10, and an underestimation in age groups 11 to 14.


CONCLUSIONS
The comparison shows an advantage of Demirjian's method for both genders. While Cameriere's method showed a higher inaccuracy in all age groups, Demirjian's method showed more appropriate results for dental age estimation of the investigated German population. To avoid errors in forensic age estimation and to prevent misidentifications for defendants in criminal processes, further studies of more precise methods for age estimation for the German population are required.
Department of Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131, Mainz, Germany. thomaswolf@uni-mainz.de.
Thomas Gerhard
TG
Wolf
Department of Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131, Mainz, Germany.
Benjamín
B
Briseño-Marroquín
Department of Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131, Mainz, Germany.
Angelika
A
Callaway
Department of Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131, Mainz, Germany.
Michael
M
Patyna
Department of Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131, Mainz, Germany.
Victor Thomas
VT
Müller
Department of Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131, Mainz, Germany.
Ines
I
Willershausen
Department of Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131, Mainz, Germany.
Vicky
V
Ehlers
Department of Operative Dentistry, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131, Mainz, Germany.
Brita
B
Willershausen
D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005553:Forensic Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014070:Tooth
Accuracy; Cameriere’s method; Demirjian’s method; Dental age estimation; Forensic dentistry; German population