Dental age estimation: Development and validation of a reference data set for Kuwaiti children, adolescents, and young adults

•Age Estimation for Kuwaiti children is within 4 months of the chronological age.•Dental Age Estimation requires an ancestral Reference Data Set.•Kuwait Dental Development is earlier in females compared to males. This study was designed to establish a Reference Data Set for Dental Age Estimation of young Kuwaiti subjects. Dental Panoramic Tomographs of 1393 Kuwaiti children, adolescents, and young adults aged between 3 and 26 years were re-used to establish a Reference Data Set. The Tooth Development Stages described by Demirjian et al. in 1973 was used to assess all the teeth on the left side of the Maxilla and the Mandible. The Accuracy and Precision of Dental Age Estimation for Kuwaiti children and adolescents was investigated by calculating the age of children using 50 females and 50 males of known age separate from the main study sample. This was the Validation Sample. Summary data for the individual Tooth Development Stages, comprising the number, mean, and standard deviation were used to estimate the age of the subjects in the Validation Sample using the Simple Average Method to calculate the Dental Age. There was no statistically significant difference between the Chronological Age and the Dental Age in males with a mean difference of 0.14 years (1.75 months). The difference in females was significant at −0.33 years (−4.1 months). These data demonstrate that estimated Dental Age in Kuwaiti females is close, just over 4 months, and is very close, in males within 1.75 months of the Chronologic Age.