BACKGROUND: A frequently reported advancement in dental maturity compared with the 50(th) percentile of Demirjian, Goldstein and Tanner (1973, Hum Biol 45:211-27) has been interpreted as a population difference. AIM: To review the assessment and interpretation of Demirjian et al.'s dental maturity. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Dental maturity of boys from published reports was compared as maturity curves and difference to the 50(th) percentile in terms of chronological age and score. Dental maturity, as well as maturity of individual teeth, was compared in the fastest and slowest maturing groups of boys from the Chaillet database. RESULTS: Maturity curves from published reports by age category were broadly similar and differences occurred at the steepest part of the curve. These reduced when expressed as score rather than age. Many studies report a higher than expected score for chronological age and the database contained more than expected children with scores>97(th) percentile. Revised scores for chronological age from this database were calculated (4072 males, 3958 females, aged 2.1-17.9). CONCLUSION: Most published reports were similar to the database smoothed maturity curve. This method of dental maturity is designed to assess maturity for a single child and is unsuitable to compare groups.
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