Dental Age Estimation in Southern Turkish Children: Comparison of Demirjian and Willems Methods

Age-related legal problems are particularly common in underdeveloped parts of Turkey. Age determination is important in terms of both laws and penalties in the legal process.
The aim of the present study was to compare the validity of the Demirjian and Willems methods in southern Turkish children.
In this retrospective study, panoramic radiographs of 745 southern Turkish children (382 boys and 363 girls) aged between 4 and 15.99 years were examined by one investigator. According to Demirjian and Willems method, the mean difference between chronological and dental age was calculated for each sex and age group. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare all data. Statistical analysis was performed to test the validity of Demirjian and Willems methods by comparing the mean estimated and chronological age.
The Demirjian’s method overestimated age with a mean accuracy of 0.832 in females and by 0.923 in males, while Willems method overestimated it by 0.202 in females and 0.434 in males.
The dental age estimation by Willems method was found to be more accurate than Demirjian method in contemporary Turkish pediatric population.