Abstract
BACKGROUND: Dental age estimation is one of the most reliable methods for determining age, commonly used for forensic, criminal, and anthropological purposes. The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the precision of the Bedek models and the Cameriere-European Formula (CF) in determinating dental age in a sample of Turkish individuals. METHODS: Retrospective panoramic radiographs of 1018 subjects (497 boys and 521 girls) aged 5-14 years were evaluated using the Bedek models and the CF. The differences between calculated dental age (DA) and chronological age (CA) for each sex and age group were analyzed using the paired sample t-test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The accuracy of the methods used to estimate dental age was determined by calculating the mean absolute error (MAE) based on the proximity of the dental age to the chronological age. RESULTS: The CF method overestimated CA by 0.1 year in the entire sample. Conversely, the Bedek models tended to overestimate CA, with the three-, four-, and seven-tooth models exhibiting the most significant difference. There was a statistically significant difference between boys and girls in the DA-CA calculation using the CF method in the entire sample. Among the Bedek models, the three- and four-tooth models had the lowest MAE in the entire sample, while the single-tooth model had the highest MAE. CONCLUSION: The CF method showed higher accuracy in predicting the age of children living in eastern Turkey compared to the Bedek Models.