Age Estimation from the Teeth Using a Modified Demirjian System

The estimation of age at time of death is often an important step in the identification of human remains. The purpose of this study was to test the applicability of the Demirjian system on a sample of the Sydney child population and to develop and test age-prediction models using a large sample of Sydney children (1624 girls, 1637 boys). The use of the Demirjian standards resulted in consistent overestimates of chronological age in children under the age of 14 by as much as a mean of 0.99 years. Of the alternative predictive models derived from the Sydney sample, those that provided the most accurate age estimates are applicable for the age ranges 2-14 years, with R-square = 0.94 and a 95% confidence interval of +/- 1.8 years. The Sydney-based standards provided significantly different and more accurate estimates of age for that sample when compared to the published standards of Demirjian.