Estimation of Dental Age in the Maxillary Right Third Molar (18) Using Willem?s Method in South Indian Population
Author(s): Devika B and Abirami Arthanari*
Abstract
Introduction: Age estimation is an important area of forensic odontology and it has increased its importance in the past few years. There are various methods in the estimation of dental age. Some of them are Atlas approaches, by the use of radiographs, where the morphological distinct stages of mineralization of all the teeth are observed. The scoring method; it was framed by Demirjian. In 2001, Willems et al. assessed the accuracy of Demirjian's method in Belgian Caucasian population; this modified method calculated the overall maturity score by adding the adapted scores for the seven teeth in the mandible which presented the result directly as the estimated age of the individual. This modification has been evaluated among various populations and has been reported to be more accurate than the original Demirjian’s method. Aim and objective: The aim of the study is to estimate the dental age in the maxillary right third molar (18) using Willem's method. Materials and methods: In our study, 100 OPGs were collected, out of which 50 were males and another 50 were females. The OPGs collected were from the age group of 10 to 20 years. The population was divided into 10 groups. The study was approved by an ethical clearance team. The data was collected along with actual age and dental age. Willems' method of stage was used to determine the dental age. The staging in Williams’s method was modified from A to H to (i) to (viii) for easy accessibility. The data was entered in SPSS (version 26.0) for statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis was performed. Results: In this present study the data was derived and estimated with the SD value of 2.22 years in males and 3.89 years in females. Chronological age shows statistically significant value (p=0.054), while tooth staging shows statistically insignificant value (p=0.762). Conclusion: Age estimation plays an important role in forensic, legal and criminal proceedings. In this study, significant relation was found between estimated DA and CA and thus Willems method seems to be applicable in estimating age.