Dental Age Assessment: Validity of the Nolla Method in a Group of Western Turkish Children

The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of the Nolla method for dental age estimation in western Turkish children. This study consisted of 688 orthopantomograms of patients of western Turkish children aged between 7 and 17 years. Dental maturity was evaluated according to the stages proposed by Nolla. A paired t-test was used for statistical analysis. The mean difference between the chronological and dental ages ranged from -1 to 0.13 years for males and from -1.15 to 0.25 years for females. The differences between the CA and DA were statistically significant in 10-10.9, 11-11.9, and 12-12.9 year age groups for males (p<0.05). The differences between the CA and DA were statistically significant in 7-7.9, 8-8.9, 9-9.9, 10-10.9, and 11-11.9 year age groups for females (p<0.05). The applicability of Nolla method is suitable for western Turkish children except ages 10, 11 and 12 in males and 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 in females. Therefore, in this study, it is suggested that there is a need for standardization in the Turkish population in age estimation.