Dental Mineralization as an Indicator of Sexual Maturity in Girls

Materials and Methods: The sample comprised 147 girls aged between 7 and 17 years (mean age 12.06 ± 1.99 years). For each girl, one to four panoramic radiographs were collected representing a total of 161 radiographs. The girls were examined in private practice in the South West of France and at Department of Orthodontics (Bordeaux University Hospital) between 2005 and 2013. Dental mineralization stages were assessed by two different methods (1) Demirjian et al. 1973 and (2) Moorrees et al. 1963, based on the evaluation of crown and root mineralization using the seven left mandibular teeth (31 to 37). First, difference between age at examination and age at menarche was defined (subsequently referred as Menarche Examination Difference or MED). Then, the measurements of correlation between development stages of permanent teeth and MED were performed using four different statistical methods (correlation ratio; regression tree; classification tree; and Bayesian inference). Bayesian inference allows to determine the probability of attribution in ante, peri and post-menarche groups for each mineralization sequence.