Radiographic evaluation of third molar development in Spanish children and young people

Abstract

Third molar development was evaluated in 786 young people aged between 4 and 20 years, all patients at the School of Dentistry of the University of Granada. The development of third molars and of mandibular second premolars and second molars was determined according to the stages proposed by Nolla. The onset of mandibular third molar formation was observed at very variable ages in this series, ranging from 5.86 to 14.66 years. The first developmental stages of maxillary third molars are not usually visible radiographically, which can lead to an incorrect diagnosis of agenesis. We found no significant relationship between the gender or age of the patient and the presence or absence of third molars. However, the presence/absence of the third molar can be predicted in 82.82% of cases when there is some degree of calcification of mandibular second molars and second premolars.

Estágio de mineralização dos terceiros molares e sua relação com a idade cronológica: uma amostra da população do Centro-Oeste do Brasil

“…Nesse sentido, no presente estudo, optou-se por utilizar o estágio de desenvolvimento de Nolla 14 (sem fases intermediárias), por acreditar que esta classificação contempla as vantagens de ser constituída por um número adequado de estágios, como demonstrado em outros trabalhos, e apresentar alto índice de concordância inter e intraobservador 19,23 .…”

“…Vários estudos demonstraram resultados semelhantes no que tange à utilização dos terceiros molares na estimativa da idade cronológica; entretanto, houve diversidade na idade inicial de aparecimento de sinais de calcificação do germe dos terceiros molares nas diferentes populações 4,5,19 .…”

Medico-Legal Age Estimation in Living Individual from a Portuguese Population: Third Molar Mineralization

“…The major disadvantage, during the use of the technique, was the superposition of anatomical structures, that difficult mainly the analysis of maxillary third molar [10,26].…”

“…There are several methods to classify dental mineralization by stages, although the validity of forensic age estimation in the courts depends, mainly, in the accuracy of the method used [10]. Dental development has a intra and inter-population variability, so there's a need to study distinct population affinities [8,12].…”

Dental age assessment (DAA): a simple method for children and emerging adults

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] On practical grounds, choice of the number of stages is a com promise between using a small number of stages that are eas ily identified and using a large number of stages that are less reliable. A more precise estimate of DA should be obtained by using a larger number of stages but, because of the diffi culty of identifying them reliably, the precision of the estimate will be reduced and the age assessment may be less accurate than if a smaller number of stages is used.…”