Comparative Analysis of Dental Age Estimation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Assessing Gender-Specific Accuracy of the Demirjian and Nolla Methods Across Different Age Groups
2024

Comparing Dental Age Estimation Methods

Sample size: 15969 publication 10 minutes Evidence: high

Author Information

Author(s): Muacevic Alexander, Adler John R, Al-Juhani Abdulkreem, Binshalhoub Abdulaziz, Showail Saleh, Alraythi Mofareh, Alzahrani Abdulrahman, Almutiri Norah F, Alrasheed Raghad F, Alzahrani Mohammed J

Primary Institution: King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Medicine

Hypothesis

How do the Demirjian and Nolla methods compare in estimating dental age across different age groups and genders?

Conclusion

Using both the Demirjian and Nolla methods together can provide a more reliable dental age estimation.

Supporting Evidence

  • The Demirjian method overestimated age by an average of 0.5 years across all age groups.
  • The Nolla method underestimated age by an average of 0.28 years.
  • Using both methods together offers cross-verification and enhanced reliability.
  • Statistically significant differences were observed across most age groups.
  • Ethnic-specific standards are recommended to improve accuracy in dental age estimation.
  • Gender differences affected the accuracy of both methods.
  • High heterogeneity was noted across studies due to population variations.
  • Further research is needed to validate age estimation methods across diverse ethnic populations.

Takeaway

This study looked at two ways to guess how old kids are based on their teeth. It found that using both methods together gives a better answer.

Methodology

A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted, comparing the accuracy of the Demirjian and Nolla methods across various age groups and genders.

Potential Biases

Potential biases due to variability in tooth development influenced by genetic, environmental, and nutritional factors.

Limitations

The study could not account for the effect of ethnicity due to the limited number of studies within each category.

Participant Demographics

Participants included 7,898 males and 7,871 females aged between 0 and 16 years from various countries.

Statistical Information

P-Value

<0.001

Confidence Interval

95% CI: 0.19, 0.6

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.7759/cureus.75031

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