INTRA-EXAMINER AND INTER-EXAMINER VARIATIONS IN 4 DENTAL METHODS FOR AGE ESTIMATION OF CHILDREN

The intra- and inter-examiner variations of the estimated chronologica l ages of children were studied with the methods described by Gustafso n & Koch (1974), Liliequist & Lundberg (1971), Demirjian et al. (1973) and Haavikko (1974). Orthopantomographs of 197 children aged 5, 6, 9, and 12 years were evaluated by 13 independent examiners to study the inter-examiner variations, and 28 orthopantomographs were examined twi ce by 12 examiners to evaluate the intra-examiner variation. The resul t showed an overall good agreement between the first and second rating , even if there were some non-systematic differences between the two r atings with some methods at some ages. However, different examiners co uld differ considerably from each other when rating the same radiograp h, and consequently a wide range of estimated ages was obtained. There was no single outlier examiner who systematically differed from the o thers, but the extremes varied from examiner to examiner for the diffe rent children.