TABLES FOR ESTIMATING THE DENTAL AGE OF CHILDREN FROM THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

AIM: Children’s ages can be estimated by evaluating dental maturation of tooth growth and mineralization. Most commonly this is done by evaluating maturation of selected permanent teeth on dental pantomograms (DPTs). The aim of this research was to test the French-Canadian standards of dental maturation developed by Demirjian and Goldstein (1976) on children from Skopje. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Nine hundred and ninety six DPTs collected from healthy children were evaluated (481 boys, 485 girls aged 6.0 to 13.9 years). Mineralization of the crowns and roots of the seven permanent teeth from the left side of mandible were determined and dental age was then calculated the dental age using a maturation score based on the French- Canadian standards. RESULTS: A statistical difference was observed between the evaluated dental age and the chronological age of children (P < 0.001) with determination coefficients (R2) of 0.67 in boys and 0.63 in girls. The mean absolute errors (MAE) were 1.02 ± 0.74 years and 1.10 ± 0.79 years, and root mean squared errors (RMSE) were 1.12 and 1.17 years in boys and girls, respectively. Using a non-linear regression model, function formulae were established for boys [age = (ln (maturation score /(100 - maturation score) ) +4.350)/0.695 ] and girls [age = (ln (maturation score / (100 - maturation score)) +4.786)/0.785 ], which increased R2 up to 0.83 in boys and 0.85 in girls and decreased MAE to 0.62 ± 0.52 and 0.59 ± 0.46 years in boys and girls, respectively. RMSE was decreased to 0.81 and 0.75 years in boys and girls, respectively. CONCLUSION: New function formulae were established and tables were created to predic