Dental age calculation by Demirjian`s method on children in F.Y.R.O.M.
AIM: Aim of this study was to evaluate Demirjian's methods for dental age calculation for children based on estimation of mineralization stages of permanent teeth when applied on children in Macedonia. METHOD: The sample of panoramic radiographs was selected from children aged 5-13 who were attending faculty clinics at the University of Skopje. Totally 471 radiographs of children were evaluated (233 boys and 238 girls) using four Demirjian’s methods. Different sets of teeth were scored with one of eight stages of development (A-H). One method from 1973 is based on evaluation of 7 permanent teeth from left side of mandible and three methods from 1976 (one method based on evaluation of 7 permanent teeth and two methods based on evaluation different sets of four teeth: PM1, PM2, M1, M2 ; and I1, PM1, PM2, M2) from the left side of mandible. Kappa score was used for evaluation of intra-rater and inter-rater agreement. RESULTS: The mean Kappa score was 0.86 for intra-rater and 0.80 for inter-rater agreement. All four methods statistically significantly overestimated dental age comparing to real age (p<0.001). The mean overestimation for both genders was the least in PM1, PM2, M1, M2 method (0.86±0.95 year), following I2, PM2, M1, M2 method (0.96±0.97 year) and method from 1976 using 7 teeth (0.96±0.97 year). The greatest overestimation was for method from 1973 using 7 teeth (1.11±1.00 year). CONCLUSION: Demirjian's methods for dental age calculation are not suitable for children in Macedonia.