Age estimation in small children: reference values based on counts of deciduous teeth in Finns

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Dentistry
• Forensic Anthropology
• Human Biology

Background:

• Tooth eruption is a key indicator for age estimation in early childhood.
• Establishing population-specific eruption data is crucial for reliable dental age assessment.
• Deciduous tooth emergence occurs between 6 months and 2.5 years, offering a window for age determination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish normative eruption timetables for deciduous teeth in a Finnish pediatric population.
• To provide practical data for estimating dental age in children.
• To investigate potential sexual dimorphism in deciduous tooth eruption timing.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study of 129 Finnish children tracking deciduous tooth eruption.
• Clinical eruption dates recorded by parents and verified by dentists.
• Utilized semiannual dental registrations for specific children's eruption data.

Main Results:

• No significant sexual dimorphism was observed in the timing of deciduous tooth eruption.
• Mean age for the presence of one tooth was 7.1 months (SD=1.78).
• Mean age for 19 teeth was 27.8 months (SD=3.99).

Conclusions:

• The developed eruption timetables can help assess dental development advancement or delay relative to chronological age.
• Mean and median eruption ages can be used for chronological age estimation in unknown cases.
• Age estimations should consider individual variation and not rely solely on tooth counts, even in homogeneous groups.