Human third molars development: Comparison of 9 country specific populations

The majority of age estimation models based on third molar development are constructed on samples from populations with described and outlined origin. Due to unlike research protocols these studies can rarely be compared for the evaluation of possible geographical or ethnical influences on third molar development. The aim of this study is to evaluate country specific third molar development on standardized collected and analyzed data. On panoramic radiographs selected from subjects out of 9 country specific populations (Belgium, China, Japan, Korea, Poland, Thailand, Turkey, Saudi-Arabia and South-India) the four third molar scores were registered, according to a modified Gleiser and Hunt methodology. To obtain for each subject a (factor) score which represents the degree of third molar development, a generalized linear mixed model for multivariate ordinal data was fitted on the repeated third molar scores. Differences between countries are analyzed using gender-specific regression models for these factor scores with age and country as predictors. Comparisons between countries revealed differences in speed and onset of development. However, although reaching statistical significance, differences in actual value were small and not constant over the considered age range. In all countries, at all ages, males were ahead in third molar development compared to females.