Abstract
BackgroundDental age estimation can assist in the identification of victims following natural disasters and it can also help to solve birth date disputes in individuals involved in criminal activities. A reference dataset (RDS) has been developed from the dental development of 2306 subjects of southern Han Chinese origin and subsequently validated. This study aimed to test the applicability of the southern Han Chinese dental maturation RDS on three distinct East Asian population groups.MethodsA total of 953 dental panoramic radiographs of subjects aged 2 to 24 years were obtained from Philippines, Thailand and Japan. The staging of dental development was conducted according to Anglo-Canadian classification system. The dental age (DA) was calculated using six methods; one un-weighted average and five weighted average (n-tds, sd-tds, se-tds, 1/sd-tds, 1/se-tds) methods based on the scores of the southern Han Chinese RDS. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 and the variation between chronological age (CA) and DA was evaluated using paired t-test and Bland & Altman scatter plots.ResultsFrom six dental age calculations, all methods of DA accurately estimated the age of Japanese and few methods in Filipino subjects (n-tds, 1/sd-tds, 1/se-tds). There was consistent overestimation of age for all the methods for Thai females (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThe southern Han Chinese dental reference dataset was shown to be most accurate for Japanese, followed by Thai males and it was particularly ineffective for Filipinos and Thai females.
Highlights
Dental age estimation can assist in the identification of victims following natural disasters and it can help to solve birth date disputes in individuals involved in criminal activities
The southern Han Chinese dental reference dataset was shown to be most accurate for Japanese, followed by Thai males and it was ineffective for Filipinos and Thai females
The southern Chinese reference dataset for the estimation of dental age showed a varied performance when tested on a sample of Thai, Filipino and Japanese individuals
Summary
Dental age estimation can assist in the identification of victims following natural disasters and it can help to solve birth date disputes in individuals involved in criminal activities. This study aimed to test the applicability of the southern Han Chinese dental maturation RDS on three distinct East Asian population groups. Philippines, a south east Asian country is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. The island nation is located on the Pacific Ocean’s ring of fire causing volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and the country absorbs the abuse of approximately 25 tropical storms and typhoons each year. Between the year and 2000, around 64 million people were affected by various forms of natural disasters including earthquake, landslide and flood [3].
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