1Consultant Oral Physician and Maxillofacial Radiologist, Private Practice, Chennai
2Professor & Head, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Sree Balaji Dental College and Hospital, Narayanapuram, Pallikaranai, Chennai, Email ID: naliniaswath@gmail.com
Online published on 24 July, 2018.
Assessment of tooth development to estimate the age of living being is required for treatment, criminal and legal aspects. Demirjian's method (1973) was the most widely used method of age estimation, and has mostly been reported to overestimate the age of an individual. Later in 2001, Guy Willems, modified Demirjian's scoring system by assigning numerical values for each developmental stages of tooth. This study was done to test the efficacy of Willems et al., method of age assessment in Dravidian children aged between 6–16 years, using Digital Ortho-pantomographs (OPG).
Retrospectively, thirty existing digital OPG's of children aged between 6–16 years, who had visited the dental hospital for various treatment purpose were reviewed. Willems et al., scoring criteria was used to estimate the dental age. The data was calculated using SPSS version 20 and subjected to Unpaired t test, Wilcoxon signed ranks test and Pearson's correlation.
The overall mean difference between the estimated dental age and chronological age for males was 0.3898 ± 1.24200 years, while for females, it was 0.182 ± 2.7800years. The total mean difference between DA and CA was 0.286 ± 2.011.
Willems method can be used effectively for age estimation in Dravidian children.
Willem's Method, Dental Age Estimation, Orthopantogram
