Cameriere's Third Molar Index for Legal Age Estimation in Iran
Regeneration, Reconstruction & Restoration (Triple R),
Vol. 9 (2024),
1 January 2024,
https://doi.org/10.22037/rrr.v9.32874
Background and objectives: Age determination has various applications, including providing information for archaeology and identifying individuals in forensic medicine. Various methods have been recommended to date for determining age. One of these methods was presented in 2006 by Cameriere et al., which was based on the assessment of the root of only one tooth (the third molar). The aim of this study is to assess the accuracy of the third molar index in determining the legal age of the Iranian population aged 15-24 years old.
Materials and methods: In this cross- sectional study, 300 panoramic radiographs (184 Females and 116 Males) were used. Patients were aged 15-24 years old. the legal age was determined based on the Cameriere’s method and compared with the actual age of the individuals. Data were analyzed using SPSS Ver. 20 with descriptive statistics and the ROC curve. The significance level was set at P-value < 0.05.
Results: After performing statistical analysis, the results were as follows: Sensitivity was 77% (95%, CI: 0.72 - 0.83), specificity was 93% (95%, CI: 0.87 - 0.99), the positive predictive value was 97% (95%, CI: 0.72 - 0.81), and the negative predictive value was 56% (95%, CI: 0.47 - 0.65).
Conclusion: This study found that Cameriere's third molar index is 91% accurate in distinguishing individuals above and below 18 years old. However, due to limitations like specific age ranges and non-randomized sampling, further research with larger, more diverse samples is needed. If validated, the index could be useful for forensic age estimation in the Iranian population.