The third molars for indicating legal adult age in Montenegro

Aim: From a medico-legal and penalty point of view, it is essential to conclude if an individual is a minor or an adult (18 years of age). Methods based on the third molar development have been used for this purpose. The present article aims to verify the Nolla's stages of mineralization of the third molars and a third molar maturity index (I-3M) which is based on the measures of the projections of open apices normalized by their height in the sample of Montenegrins. Method and sample: The sample consisted of 683 panoramic radiographs (324 males and 359 females) between 13 and 24 years of age. The specific mineralization stages of Nolla and the cut-off value of I-3M < 0.08 was used to discriminate adults and minors. Results: The best performance in discriminating adults and minors was for I-3M < 0.08 followed by the Nolla stage 9. For I-3M < 0.08 the results demonstrated high sensitivity of 0.92 and 0.82 and specificity of 0.94 and 0.96 in males and females, respectively. The proportions of correctly classified individuals were 0.93 in males and 0.89 in females. The Nolla stage 9 demonstrated the sensitivity of 0.95 and 0.85 and the specificity of 0.84 and 0.90 in males and females, respectively. The proportions of correctly classified individuals were 0.90 in males and 0.87 in females. Conclusion: The suggested value of I-3M < 0.08 followed by Nolla stage 9 can be used to discriminate adults from minors with high specificity.