Abstract
Little is documented on the accu-racy of estimating age from alveolar eruption (AE) or partial eruption (PE). The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of age estimation from eruption levels. Methods tested were Gleiser and Hunt (1955), Garn et al. (1958), Ando et al. (1965), Haavikko (1970) and clinical eruption from Smith et al. (1998). The sample was 946 panoramic dental radiographs from children aged 3-16 years. Left mandibular teeth (excluding third molar) were assessed for eruption level (AE and PE) and root quarters. Methods, teeth and eruption levels were deemed to be accurate if the average difference between estimated and chronological ages was not significant to zero using a t-test (P>0.05). Results show that early erupting permanent teeth were fairly good at estimating age, although there was considerable age variation in eruption. Haavikko incisors and molars at AE and Haavikko and Smith central incisor and second molar at PE estimated age accurately. Root stage of erupting teeth estimated age more accurately than eruption level using Haavikko. These findings suggest that erupting permanent mandibular teeth can be helpful in estimating age.
Highlights
Little is documented on the accuracy of estimating age from alveolar eruption (AE) or partial eruption (PE)
Eruption levels were defined as developing tooth within bone, cusp tips at or just above the alveolar bone level (AE), cusp tips considerably above the alveolar bone level but not fully erupted (PE), fully erupted
Just over half of this large sample (52%) had one or more erupting teeth. This is a reflection of the age range of the sample with most of the youngest individuals having no permanent teeth erupted and most of the older individuals having all seven permanent teeth erupted
Summary
Little is documented on the accuracy of estimating age from alveolar eruption (AE) or partial eruption (PE). Root stage of erupting teeth estimated age more accurately than eruption level using Haavikko. An 1837 pamphlet by Saunders entitled “The Teeth: a Test of Age” (considered with reference to the factory children) was one of the earliest uses of age estimation from eruption of teeth (Miles 1963). This stated that if the third molar was present in the mouth (i.e. the first permanent molar M1, behind the deciduous molars), the child was likely to be 9 years of age. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of estimated age using several methods that provide mean/median age of tooth eruption levels
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