The accuracy of Belgrade Age Formula method for dental age estimation in Montenegrin children aged 10–12 years

Abstract

Introduction/Objective. The aim of the study was to test the accuracy of Belgrade Age Formula (BAF) for dental age estimation on the sample of Montenegrin children. Methods. The radiographs of 134 Montenegrin children (67 females and 67 males) saved as “jpeg” files were analyzed with Image J software. Sex, the number of teeth with complete development, apex width and tooth length of the mandibular canine and second molar were used in order to calculate dental age with the BAF formula. Results. The discrepancy between estimated dental age and chronological age was -0.088 ± 0.64 years; the absolute difference was 0.52 ± 0.39 years. The percentage of participants whose estimated dental age differed six months from their chronological age was 61.2 and 53.7 for females and males, respectively, while the percentage of participants whose estimated dental age differed 12 months from their chronological age was 94 and 83.6 for females and males, respectively. Conclusion. The BAF may be an accurate approach for estimating dental age in Montenegrin children aged 10–12 years with uncompleted tooth development. However, BAF has to be evaluated on a larger sample of Montenegrin infants in future studies.

Keywords

• dental age
• age estimation
• baf
• montenegro