Effects of nutrition on timing of mineralization in teeth in a Peruvian sample by the Cameriere and Demirjian methods

Background: Few studies have been conducted among children to investigate the effects of malnutrition and race on the timing of tooth formation. Aim: The study investigated whether there is a significant association between nutritional status, gender, and the process of tooth mineralization. Subjects and methods: Orthopantomograms of 287 Peruvian schoolchildren, aged 9.5-16.5 years, were evaluated. For each individual, we considered the number of the seven right permanent mandibular teeth, with completely closed apical ends of roots (N-0), sum of normalized open apices (S), and the Demirjian score (Ds). We also estimated individual age by the Cameriere and Demirjian methods, and assessed their accuracy. Results: For each age class, the distributions of N-0, S and Ds in the two sub-populations of Peruvian children, undernourished and well nourished, were not statistically significant. The mean error ( ME) in age estimation was 0.75 and 1.31 years for the Cameriere and Demirjian methods, respectively. Conclusions: Nutrition did not seem to affect the process of tooth growth. As regards the accuracy of age estimation, the Cameriere method yielded more accurate estimates than the Demirjian method.