Gabriela Anchordoqui, Luis Epele, and Pablo Olivieri
Even though the dental maturity scoring system is universal in
application, one expects the conversion to dental age, or the
location of the centiles for maturity at given ages, to depend on
the population under analysis. In this work, we examine the
dental development of an Argentine group of children, ranging in
age from 4.66 to 6.66 years, by analyzing 105 panoramic
radiographs using the Demirjian-Goldstein-Tanner method.
The maturity of each first molar is evaluated individually and
rated according to development criteria (such as amount of
dentinal deposit, or shape change of the pulp chamber) rather
than changes in size. Our study indicates that the clinical
emergence, which roughly speaking corresponds to the attainment
of 3/4 of the root length, occurs at an average age of 5.8 + -
0.5 years. Analysis of intersexual differences reveals an
average age of 5.7 + - 0.4 years for girls and 5.8 + - 0.5
years for boys, yielding the so-called ``universal pattern'',
viz., the advancement of girls over
boys. These values are
within 1-sigma when compared to estimates of the first molar
dental age in genetically homogeneous populations, and are
partially consistent with studies on British and Danish
children.
However, it is noteworthy that the first molar dental maturity
occurs earlier (more than 1-sigma) in Argentine than Mexican
children. Specifically, the first molar has a clinical emergence
in Mexican boys (girls) at an average age of 6.7 + - 0.3 years
(6.6 + - 0.2 years). In light of our findings we strongly
recommend that Argentine dentists implement preventive
dentistry during the pre-primary student period.
Submitted to Revista Iberoamericana de Ortodoncia
