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Updated: Dec 31, 2025
Author Spotlight: Three-Dimensional Cephalometric Landmark Annotation Demonstration on Human Cone Beam Computed Tomography Scans
Published on: September 8, 2023
Age estimation for children and young adults by volumetric analysis of upper anterior teeth using cone-beam computed
1Department of Orthodontics, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, College of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology & Shanghai Research Institute of Stomatology., Shanghai, China.
Background:
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between chronological age and the pulp/tooth volume ratio (PTR) of specific teeth using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) enhanced with Materialise-Mimics Research software 21.0 in children and young adult population from Eastern China.
Materials And Methods:
CBCT scans of 230 patients (119 males, 111 females), aged 8.18-19.92 years were analysed by two well-trained examiners in this retrospective study. The intraclass correlation coefficient value was calculated to test the intra- and inter-examiner agreement. The volumetric analysis of the pulp and calcified tissues was performed on the maxillary left central incisors and canines. The correlation and regression analyses were then performed.
Results:
The Pearson correlation analysis showed a strong coefficient of correlation (r) for maxillary left canines (-0.81 for girls and -0.88 for boys) as compared to central incisors (-0.63 for girls and -0.70 for boys). Regarding performance, the canine model was more powerful than the central incisor model. The derived regression equation from maxillary left canines had high coefficients of determination (Age = 21.979 - 105.42 × PTR, R2 = 0.69).
Conclusions:
Our study proved that the PTR value of canines had a negative correlation relationship with a subadult's chronological age and volumetric analysis of CBCT scans using the software may become an efficient method to estimate the chronological age of children and young adults.
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