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Updated: May 31, 2026

Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology
Published on: August 22, 2022
Dental maturity of Caucasian children in the Indianapolis area
Lauren S Weddell1, James K Hartsfield
1Assistant clinical professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis, ID, USA. lweddell@iupui.edu
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to compare chronologic and dental age using Demirjian's method.
Methods:
Two hundred and fifty-seven panoramic radiographs of healthy 5- to 17.5-year-old Caucasian children in the Indianapolis area were evaluated using Demirjian's 7 tooth method.
Results:
The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for agreement with Demirjian was 0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 0.97). The ICC for repeatability of the investigator was 0.97 (95% CI=0.95, 0.99). Calculated dental age was significantly greater than chronologic age by 0.59 years (P<.001). There was no significant difference in the mean difference in ages between sexes (P=.73). Medicaid subjects had a significantly higher (P<.001) mean difference (0.82 years) than private insurance subjects (0.32 years). There was a significant negative correlation between the chronologic age and the difference in ages (r=-0.29, P<.001). Overweight (P<.001) and obese (P=.004) subjects were significantly more dentally advanced than normal (P=.35) and underweight (P=.42) subjects.
Conclusions:
Demirjian's method has high inter- and intraexaminer repeatability. Caucasian children in the Indianapolis area are more advanced dentally than the French-Canadian children studied by Demirjian. Difference between dental age and chronologic age varies depending on the age of the child, socioeconomic status, and body mass index.
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