Demirjian's and Cameriere's Methods for the Assessment of Dental Age Estimation in Children from a Southern Brazilian City

Abstract

The chronological age estimation of living individuals is a crucial part of forensic practice and clinical practice, such as in orthodontic treatment. It is well-known that methods for age estimation in living children should be tested on different populations. Ethnic affiliations in Brazil are divided into several major groups depending on the region, with the south of Brazil being known for its German immigration. (1) Background: This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between chronological age and dental age using Demirjian's method and Cameriere's method in a group of children from Joinville, South Brazil to investigate if both methods can be used to estimate dental age in this population. (2) Methods: The sample consisted of 229 panoramic radiographs (119 were males and were 110 females) from Brazilian children (ages ranging from 6 to 12 years). The chronological age at the time of the panoramic radiographic exam was calculated for each child. The dental age was estimated according to Demirjian's method and Cameriere's method. All continuous data were tested for normality by using the Shapiro–Wilk test. The Pearson correlation coefficient test was applied. An alpha of 5% (<em>p</em> < 0.05) was used for all analyses. (3) Results: The mean chronological age was 8.75 years. According to Demirjian's method, the mean dental age was 9.3 years, while according to Cameriere's method, the mean dental age was 8.66 years. A strong correlation between chronological age and dental age according to Demirjian (<em>r</em> = 0.776 and <em>p</em> < 0.0001) and Cameriere (<em>r</em> = 0.735 and <em>p</em> < 0.0001) was observed for both genders. (4) Conclusions: Both methods presented a good correlation with chronological age in the studied population and could be used to assess dental age in this population.