Abstract

Introduction: For the sciences of forensic odontology and medicine, paediatric dentistry, clinical health and dentistry, archeology; estimating the age is crucially important. The stages of teeth development gives a non-invasive and effective methodology to estimate the age of a person. The Nolla and Demirjian’s are the most widely used methods for estimating age, latter being the, most trusted.

Aim and Objective: To evaluate the reliability of age estimation of Nolla and Demirjian’s 7 teeth method and also to evaluate the validity of Indian formula in Hadoti population.

Materials and methods: The study sample comprised of 212 individuals between the ages of 6 - 18 years. The patients chronological age was noted by their birth certificate. First the analysis of orthopantomograph was done to evaluate the radiographic age of the sample using both Demirjian’s methods and applying the specific formula. The chronological age then was compared with that of radiographic age. The results were obtained by using SPSS v16 software.

Results: The estimation of dental age using Demirjian’s 7 teeth and 8 teeth method resulted in overestimation while the Indian specific formula was significantly related to chronological age.

Conclusion: Age estimating procedure using Indian specific formula diminishes the chances of errors in precisely estimating dental age. However more studies should be carried out in different regions in India to ascertain applicability of Indian specific formula.

Keywords: Age Prediction; Demirjian’s Method; Dental Maturity; Nolla

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