Comparison of different dental age estimation methods with deep learning: Willems, Cameriere-European, London Atlas

Abstract

This study aimed to compare dental age estimates using Willems, Cameriere-Europe, London Atlas, and deep learning methods on panoramic radiographs of Turkish children. The dental ages of 1169 children (613 girls, 556 boys) who agreed to participate in the study were determined by 4 different methods. The Convolutional Neural Network models examined were implemented in the TensorFlow library. Simple correlations and intraclass correlations between children's chronological ages and dental age estimates were calculated. Goodness-of-fit criteria were calculated based on the errors in dental age estimates and the smallest possible values for the Akaike Information Criterion, the Bayesian-Schwarz Criterion, the Root Mean Squared Error, and the coefficient of determination value. Simple correlations were observed between dental age and chronological ages in all four methods (p < 0.001). However, there was a statistically significant difference between the average dental age estimates of methods other than the London Atlas for boys (p = 0.179) and the four methods for girls (p < 0.001). The intra-class correlation between chronological age and methods was examined, and almost perfect agreement was observed in all methods. Moreover, the predictions of all methods were similar to each other in each gender and overall (Intraclass correlation [ICCW] = 0.92, ICCCE=0.94, ICCLA=0.95, ICCDL=0.89 for all children). The London Atlas is only suitable for boys in predicting the age of Turkish children, Willems, Cameriere-Europe formulas, and deep learning methods need revision.