Dental age estimation in Egyptian children, comparison between two methods

The need to estimate age of living individuals is becoming increasingly more important in both forensic science and clinical dentistry. The study of the morphological parameters of teeth on dental radiographs of adult humans is more reliable than most other methods for age estimation. Willems and Cameriere methods are newly presented methods. The aim of this work was to evaluate the applicability of using these methods for Egyptian children. Digitalized panoramas taken from 286 Egyptian children (134 boys, 152 girls) with age range from 5 to 16 years were analyzed. The seven left permanent mandibular teeth were evaluated using the two methods. The results of this research showed that dental age estimated by both methods was significantly correlated to real age. However, Willems method was slightly more accurate (98.62%) compared to Cameriere method (98.02%). Therefore, both methods can be recommended for practical application in clinical dentistry and forensic procedures on the Egyptian population.