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Overall dental maturity was studied semilongitudinally in a group of 248 healthy children born in Helsinki in 1968-73. In all, 738 orthopantomograms were taken of these children at ages of 2.5-16.5 years. Overall dental maturity was estimated by the method of Demirjian and Goldstein, which is based on the development of seven left mandibular permanent teeth. The aim of the study was to construct dental maturity curves for Finnish children and to compare their dental maturity with that of French-Canadian children studied by the same method. The Finnish children were more advanced in dental maturation than French-Canadian children (p less than 0.01). In boys the advancement was seen at the age of 5-10 years and in girls at the age of 4-12 years. These findings suggest differences in overall dental maturity among white population groups.

Development of teeth was studied from 2483 dental panoramic tomograms of 1651 healthy Finns ranging in age from 2 to 25 years. Dental maturity was assessed using a method based on developmental stages of 7 left mandibular teeth. We give sex-specific tables of maturity scores as a function of ages and of ages as a function of maturity scores. Also generated are percentile graphs for visual evaluations of dental maturity in children and adolescents. Since maturity scales do not tolerate any missing data, a great limitation for their use, we have developed linear regression models for predicting the formation stages of each of the 7 mandibular teeth. It was easiest to predict the formation stage of the mandibular first molars (correct in 87% within the study material) and most difficult to predict second molars and second premolars (correct in 69% and 70%, respectively). We expect the data and formulae presented in this study to prove useful in research and in clinical and forensic dentistry.

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