Determination of dental age in adopted non-European children

Adoption and immigration have brought about a considerable number of non-European children living in Sweden. Frequently the date of birth and age of the child are estimates of some uncertainty. In order to find out whether dental age could be useful in these cases a determination of dental age, according to methods described by Gustafson & Koch (1974) and by Liliequist & Lundberg (1971) was carried out in 44 non-European adoptive children, 23 with certain and 21 with uncertain date of birth. The results showed good agreement between the two methods and for children whose date of birth was certain, dental age determination was reliable, regardless of sex and race. For almost half of the children of uncertain age, however, dental age differed by a year or more. This may be seen as evidence of the difficulty in estimating the correct age in the native country and to asses the correctness of this estimate at the routine medical checks at present carried out upon arrival in Sweden. It can be concluded that in order to assign a reliable year of birth all adoptive or immigrant children whose age is at all uncertain should also be subjected to adequate odontological age determination.