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Open Access 01-07-2019 | Original Article

Dental age estimation in Somali children and sub-adults combining permanent teeth and third molar development

Authors: Mari Metsäniitty, Janna Waltimo-Sirén, Helena Ranta, Steffen Fieuws, Patrick Thevissen

Published in: International Journal of Legal Medicine | Issue 4/2019

Abstract

Estimation of an individual’s age has important applications in forensics. In young individuals, it often relies on separate evaluations of permanent teeth (PT) and third molars (TM) development. Here, we analysed the age prediction performance of combined information from PT and TM in an unusual sample of healthy Somalis, born and living in Finland. PT development was staged according to Demirjian et al. (Hum Biol, 1973) and TM development according to Köhler et al. (Ann Anat, 1994), using panoramic radiographs from 803 subjects (397 males, 406 females) aged 3–23 years. A sex-specific Bayesian age-estimation model for the multivariate distribution of the stages conditional on age was fitted on PT, TM and PT and TM combined. The age-estimation performances were validated and quantified. The approach combining PT and TM only overestimated age with an ME of − 0.031 years in males and − 0.011 years in females, indicating the best age prediction performance.

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Title: Dental age estimation in Somali children and sub-adults combining permanent teeth and third molar development
Authors: Mari Metsäniitty
Janna Waltimo-Sirén
Helena Ranta
Steffen Fieuws
Patrick Thevissen
Publication date: 01-07-2019
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: International Journal of Legal Medicine / Issue 4/2019
Print ISSN: 0937-9827
Electronic ISSN: 1437-1596
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-019-02053-w

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Dental age estimation in Somali children and sub-adults combining permanent teeth and third molar development

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