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To Evaluate the Utility of Smaller Sample Sizes when Assessing Dental Maturity Curves for Forensic Age Estimation * ,†
Author(s) -
Flood Sara J.,
Mitchell Warren J.,
Oxnard Charles E.,
Turlach Berwin A.,
McGeachie John
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.01884.x
Subject(s) - forensic science , maturity (psychological) , demography , dentistry , statistical significance , analysis of variance , sample size determination , sample (material) , orthodontics , medicine , mathematics , statistics , psychology , veterinary medicine , chemistry , developmental psychology , chromatography , sociology
Dental maturation and chronological age estimation were determined from 144 healthy Western Australian individuals aged 3.6–14.5 years. The results were compared with Farah et al.’s previous study which comprised a larger heterogeneous sample of Western Australian individuals ( n = 1450). Orthopantomograms were analyzed with the application of Demirjian and Goldstein’s 4‐tooth method based on eight stages of dental mineralization. Analysis of variance revealed no significant differences in dental maturity scores in each age group among the males in both studies; similar results were seen in the females. Paired t ‐tests showed no statistical significance overall between chronological and estimated ages for the males in our sample ( p = 0.181), whereas the females showed significant differences ( p < 0.001). Our results show that smaller samples may be used when assessing dental maturity curves for forensic age estimation.