Comparison of the applicability of Demirjian and Willems methods for dental age estimation in children from Jordan

Several methods for dental age estimation have been proposed. The accuracy of such methods is important for clinical, biological and forensic purposes. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of the Demirjian and Willems methods in estimating the chronological age of Jordanian children aged 4 to 16 years and to establish a new formula if neither method was found to be accurate. A total of 1,000 Ortho-Panoramic Radiographs (OPGs) that were already taken for children attending the Dental Department at Jordan University Hospital were collected and the dental age was determined using both Demirjian and Willems methods. The results showed that the Demirjian method overestimated the chronological age for both males (0.43 years) and females (0.49 years) while the Willems method underestimated the age for both males (0.03 years) and females (0.27 years). The non-linear regression analyses identified a regression formula to use for age estimation. The expected chronological age values from regression formulas generated almost linear curves indicating the high consistency with the actual chronological age. Although significant differences between the chronological and dental ages estimated by the Demirjian and Willems methods were observed, both methods could be relatively applicable to estimate the age of Jordanian children and adolescents. However, the Willems method was generally more accurate.