Dental Age Estimation in HIV-infected Children Using Willems Method

Objective: HIV patients differ from other people in terms of dental age. Estimating the age of children abandoned due to HIV is crucial for forensic records. The present study aimed to compare HIV-infected children with healthy controls in terms of dental age using the Willems method. Methods: The study sample consisted of orthopantomograms of 40 HIV patients aged 5-16 years and 50 children aged 6-16 years as the control group. The HIV group included children with vertical infections who had received antiretroviral therapy. The Willems method was used to compare two groups in terms of dental age. Results: Dental age estimation in both HIV and control groups was overestimated using the Willems method. Nevertheless, the overestimation rate was approximately one month in the control group and less than two months in the HIV group, making the method widely applicable for estimating dental age in both healthy children and HIV patients. The dental age of the HIV-infected children was lower than that of the control group. Conclusion: This study indicated a lower dental age in the HIV-infected children compared to the control group. The results demonstrated that dental age estimation using Willems method closely approximated the chronological age of HIV patients.