Cameriere’s European formula for age estimation: A study on the children in the Russian population

Determining the age of minors (children and adolescents) plays an important role in forensic medicine, justice and investigation, as it serves as the basis for making decisions on criminal and civil liability, forms an objective basis for the legal qualification of acts and determining the scope of legal capacity. Among all the existing methods of estimating the age of a living person, dental methods have become the most popular all over the world, as the most objective and least expensive. To assess dental age, an assessment of their development on radiographs is most often used, and the most popular method is the method of measuring the open tops of teeth (Cameriere). OBJECTIVE: To verify the accuracy of the assessment of dental age according to the European Cameriere formula in a sample of Russian children. The method of determining dental age is based on the relationship between age and the size of the exposed tips of the roots of the teeth. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Orthopantomograms from 300 children (146 boys and 154 girls) aged 5 to 15 years were analyzed. Seven left mandibular teeth were evaluated: the number of teeth with fully developed roots in this quadrant (with closed tips) was calculated, and in teeth with incomplete root development, the distance between the inner sides of the open apex was measured, which were later normalized by dividing by another metric indicator - tooth length. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: ) showed a significant positive correlation with chronological age. The use of the European Cameriere formula revealed an underestimation of the average age in the study sample for boys by 0.68 and for girls by 0.6 years, and the overall average forecasting error was 0.63 years. The error value varied and depended on the age group and gender: with increasing age and the number of teeth with closed apices, the error value increased. Statistical analysis showed that the selected morphological variables explain more than 65% of the variations in determining the chronological age according to the European formula. The positive results obtained provide space for improving the model and increasing the accuracy of age prediction by adapting the proposed formula to the regional characteristics of groups of children and subsequently creating a national age assessment formula for children and adolescents.