Reliability of Demirjian’s, Cameriere’s, and London Atlas Methods Using Panoramic Radiographs of Developing Teeth

Introduction: The principle objective of forensic odontology is to establish an individual’s identity through dental records, age estimation methods, and identification of bite marks. Determining age is vital for reconstruction of the biologic profile of unknown individuals. Dental age estimation is less variable and genetically controlled when compared to skeletal methods and is hence more reliable. Hence, this study aims in estimating age using 3 most widely practiced age estimation methods, i.e. Demirjian’s, Cameriere’s, and London Atlas methods using OPGs, and compare which method stands more reliable. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was done on 100 OPGs of children between 5 and 15 years of age. OPGs were taken using X-Mind Pano D + digital panoramic unit. The scans stored in the Soredex software were analyzed for age estimation according to the standard methods for Demirjian’s, Cameriere’s, and London Atlas methods. Chronological age of children was calculated as difference between date of OPG exposed and date of birth. Estimated age using various methods is compared with chronological age. Results: The mean chronological age in the present study was 12.29 years. Demirjian’s method overestimated chronological age of the sample by 0.90 years which was statistically significant ( P = 0.016) while Cameriere’s method and London Atlas method underestimated the age of the sample with a mean difference of 2.27 years and 0.24 years, respectively. This difference was highly statistically significant ( P = 0.000) for Cameriere’s method while it was nonsignificant ( P = 0.517) for London Atlas method. Conclusion: Although the results of the present study showed that all the 3 methods had a positive correlation with chronological age, the authors concluded that Cameriere’s method is the more reliable for age estimation as there are a significant correlation between chronological and estimated age and also a high positive correlation.