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Erschienen in: European Radiology 5/2019

30.11.2018 | Forensic Medicine

Age assessment by Demirjian’s development stages of the third molar: a systematic review

verfasst von: Veslemøy Rolseth, Annhild Mosdøl, Pål Skage Dahlberg, Yunpeng Ding, Øyvind Bleka, Marianne Skjerven-Martinsen, Gyri Hval Straumann, Gerd Jorunn Møller Delaveris, Gunn Elisabeth Vist

Erschienen in: European Radiology | Ausgabe 5/2019

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Abstract

Objectives

Radiographic evaluation of the wisdom teeth (third molar) formation is a widely used age assessment method for adolescents and young adults. This systematic review examines evidence on the agreement between Demirjian’s development stages of the third molar and chronological age.

Methods

We searched four databases up until May 2016 for studies reporting Demirjian’s stages of third molar and confirmed chronological age of healthy individuals aged 10–25 years. Heterogeneity test of the included studies was performed.

Results

We included 21 studies from all continents except Australia, all published after 2005. The mean chronological age for Demirjian’s stages varied considerably between studies. The results from most studies were affected by age mimicry bias. Only a few of the studies based their results on an unbiased age structure, which we argue as important to provide an adequate description of the method’s ability to estimate age.

Conclusion

Observed study variation in the timing of Demirjian’s development stages for third molars has often been interpreted as differences between populations and ethnicities. However, we consider age mimicry to be a dominant bias in these studies. Hence, the scientific evidence is insufficient to conclude whether such differences exist.

Key Points

• There is significant heterogeneity between studies evaluating age assessment by Demirjian’s third molar development.
• Most of the studies were subject to the selection bias age mimicry which can be a source of heterogeneity.
Presence of age mimicry bias makes it impossible to compare and combine results. These biased studies should not be applied as reference studies for age assessment.
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Metadaten
Titel
Age assessment by Demirjian’s development stages of the third molar: a systematic review
verfasst von
Veslemøy Rolseth
Annhild Mosdøl
Pål Skage Dahlberg
Yunpeng Ding
Øyvind Bleka
Marianne Skjerven-Martinsen
Gyri Hval Straumann
Gerd Jorunn Møller Delaveris
Gunn Elisabeth Vist
Publikationsdatum
30.11.2018
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erschienen in
European Radiology / Ausgabe 5/2019
Print ISSN: 0938-7994
Elektronische ISSN: 1432-1084
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5761-z

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