Accuracy of two dental and one skeletal age estimation methods in 6-16 year old Gujarati children

INTRODUCTION: Age estimation is of immense importance not only for personal identification but also for treatment planning in medicine and dentistry. Chronologic age conveys only a rough approximation of the maturational status of a person, hence dental and skeletal ages have been explored as maturity indicators since decades. The tooth maturation provides a valuable indicator of dental age and serves as a better index of the maturation of a child as compared to other maturity indicators. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To test the applicability of Demirjian's and Willem's dental age assessment methods as well as Greulich and Pyle skeletal age assessment method in children residing in Gandhinagar district. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study consisted of randomly selected 180 subjects (90 males and 90 females) ranging from 6 to 16 years age and residing in Gandhinagar district. Dental age estimation was performed from radiovisuograph (RVG) images of mandibular teeth of left quadrant by both Demirjian's and Willem's methods. Skeletal age estimation was done from right hand wrist radiograph by Greulich and Pyle method. The differences between the chronological age and the estimated dental and skeletal ages were statistically tested using paired ‘t’ test. The correlation between chronological age, dental and skeletal age estimation methods was confirmed statistically by Pearson's correlation. The reproducibility of the estimations was statistically tested using the Pearson's Chi-square test. RESULTS: Amongst the age estimation methods used in this study, the Willem's dental age estimation method proved to be the most accurate and consistent. CONCLUSION: Although various age estimation methods do exist, the results are varied in different populations due to ethnic differences. However, till new tables are formulated, the Willem's method (Modified Demirjian method) can be accurately applied to estimate chronological age for the population residing in Gandhinagar district.