Which method can be used to assess chronologic age in children?

Abstract

Backgrounds: Dental age determination methods are employed in forensic cases to estimate the age of unidentified individuals. In situations involving mass disasters or war, however, identification is complicated by the absence of adequate tissue remains. To determine children's dental age (DA) through various methods, assess their accuracy, and explore the relationship between bone trabeculation, chronologic age (CA), and DA using fractal dimension analysis (FDA). Methods: DA was assessed using the Willems (WDA) and London Atlas (LADA) methods on panoramic radiographs of 900 children aged 6–15 years, with accuracy evaluated via mean absolute error (MAE). From these radiographs, 639 were randomly selected for FDA in six regions of interest (bilateral mandibular condyle, angle of mandible, and body of mandible). FDA was used to measure bone trabeculation and its relationship with sex, DA, and CA was determined. Statistical analyses included paired t-tests, Wilcoxon, Mann–Whitney U, independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Kruskal–Wallis tests. Results: WDA and LADA proved effective in estimating the age of Turkish children, with WDA providing closer CA estimates for ages 10 years and below; LADA performed better for ages over 10 years. WDA was particularly reliable for estimating female ages. Both methods showed a positive correlation between DA and FDA, with FDA values increasing alongside CA. No significant sex differences were observed in FDA values. Conclusion: Although WDA and LADA effectively determine DA with varying accuracy according to sex, the positive correlation of FDA with CA emerges as a promising study in predicting children's ages.