Age estimation in children by measurement of open apices in teeth: a European formula

The aim of the present paper was to improve and expand research with a larger number of children from various European countries and to provide a common formula useful for all these countries. Orthopantomographs taken from 2,652 European Caucasian children (1,382 boys, 1,270 girls) aged between 4 and 16 years were analyzed. The children came from Croatia, Germany, Kosovo, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK. Following the pilot study, subjects’ age was modeled as a function of gender (g), morphological variables (predictors) × 5(second premolar), s (sum of normalized open apices) N ₀, and the first-order interaction between s and N ₀. The results showed that all these variables contributed significantly to the fit, so that all were included in the regression model, yielding the following linear regression formula: Age = 8.387 + 0.282 g − 1.692 × 5 + 0.835 N ₀ − 0.116 s − 0.139 s × N ₀, where g is a variable, 1 for males and 0 for females. The equation explained 86.1% (R ² = 0.861) of total deviance. The median of the residuals (=observed age minus predicted age) was −0.114 years, with (RefB.2) interquartile range = 1.22 years.