Age Assessment in Children: A Novel Cameriere's Stratagem

Age is one of the essential factors in establishing the identity of a person, especially in children. Age estimation plays an important part in treatment planning, forensic dentistry, legal issues, and paleodemographic research. The present study was an attempt to estimate the chronological age in children of Davangere population by using Cameriere's India specific formula.

This was a retrospective observational study to estimate the chronological age in children of Davangere population. A total of 150 panoramic radiographs of patients aged between 6 and 15 years, including both sexes, were selected. Age was calculated by measuring open apices of seven right or left mandibular teeth using Adobe Photoshop software.

Statistical analysis was performed to derive a regression equation for estimation of age, which showed that, of the variables X the variables N and X₄ were statistically noteworthy. Hence, these two variables were used to derive the linear regression formula: Age = 10.522 + 0.712(N₀) - 5.040(X₄). The model was found to be statistically significant, F(2, 147) = 207.96, p < 0.001, and accounted for approximately 74% of the variance of age (R² = 0.739, adjusted R² = 0.735).

Cameriere's method can be used for age assessment in children for forensic as well as legal contexts and based on these variables a reliable age estimation equation could be proposed specifically for Davangere population.

Attiguppe PR, Yavagal C, Maganti R, Mythri P. Age Assessment in Children: A Novel Cameriere's Stratagem. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2016;9(4):330-334.