Evaluation of modified demirjian and cameriere third molar maturity index (I3M) on dental age estimation in North Indian population: A comparative study

With advent of crime recorded by the perpetrator of a young age, accurate age estimation is important to determine the further course of action, beyond this it even helps to determine, disaster victim identification (DVI), sports, fashion, education and many more. Several studies and formula have been proposed over the years for various parts of the world and amongst them Cameriere's method is now being accepted globally, and the related work is still one of the most thought about.

The overall purpose of conducting the research is to correlate chronological age(CA) with Cameriere third molar maturity index(I_3M) and to compare chronological age (CA) with Demirjian 10 stage age estimation method and also to determine which amongst the two will be a better fit in the north Indian population.

Orthopantomograms (OPG) of 746 subjects of north India with age group between 10 to 25 years were collected. Demirjian's 8 teeth method was used for staging of the selected teeth and after that, mineralization of the third left mandibular molar was examined by Cameriere third molar maturity index (I_3M). The resultant data was subjected to statistical analysis.

The amalgamation of both the methods i.e. modified Demirjian and Cameriere I_3M has given predictability up to 93% in all cases.

Dental Age estimation should not be restricted to one method, multiple methods should be applied, repetitive measurements and calculations must be done, in order to obtain precise and calibrated results using third molar.