Dental age estimation in Spanish children

Abstract

The objective of this study was to apply the method for calculating dental age proposed by Demirjian et al. to a sample of Spanish children, followed by a comparison between their dental and chronological ages. This study also set out to create tables to convert specific dental age using the maturity data from our sample. This study was performed on a sample of 1010 orthopantograms taken of Spanish children (485 boys and 525 girls) aged 2–16. We found that the mean estimated dental age exceeded the mean chronological age in both boys and girls, with the mean difference being 0.87 and 0.55 years respectively. We adapted Demirjian’s method to our study sample to obtain specific conversion tables and curves.