Orthopantomography and Age Determination Using Third Molar Mineralization in A Sample of Egyptians

Abstract

In the last decade, the number of unidentified cadavers and cases lacking age documentation and therefore requiring age determination has increased. Dental age determination still represents today the most sensitive mean. In the age span of 15-26 years of age the wisdom teeth represent the only teeth still in development and thereby very important for dental age assessment. So, the aim of the present investigation was to detect the chronological age of an individual based on the dental developmental stages of third molars proposed by Demirjian et al. (1973). In this study 380 orthopantomograms of Egyptian patients (214 males and 166 females) with known age and sex were selected for the study. Patients' age ranged from 8 to 26 years. X rays were examined by the second author (N.A.A.), the developmental stage of third molars in both upper and lower arches were detected using method of Demirjian et al. (1973). Data were gathered and SPSS was used for statistical processing. The mean values and standard deviation (SD+) were determined for the ages of respective mineralization stages of each of the four wisdom teeth. Further statistical analysis was performed in order to obtain multiple regression formulae for dental age calculation. The results showed that the mean age at early developmental stages (A-D) was lower in males than in females in all wisdom teeth .On the other hand, the stages from E-G there was earlier development in females in maxillary molars but it was earlier in males in mandibular molars. The full eruption of third molar (H stage) was earlier in females in the four molars. The greatest correlation coefficient was found between the developmental stages of maxillary molars in females. A strong correlation was found between lower right and lower left molar in females, a similar correlation was found between upper left and lower left third molars in females. The lower correlation coefficient was noticed between antimeres such as upper right and lower right in males. The probability of an individual being older than 18 years in case of fully developed wisdom was 100% in females when one molar or more were found but it was 66.7% in males when one molar is present and 100% when two or more molars were present. Regression analysis was performed in order to obtain regression formulae for dental age prediction.