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Objective: To evaluate the applicability of Demirjian and Nolla methods for northeastern Turkish population. Material and Method: A retrospective study was performed on panoramic radiographs of 673 subjects aged 5–15.9 years. The mean dental age (DA) according to the Demirjian and Nolla methods were compared to the mean chronological age (CA). Results: The mean CA of the study sample was 10.37±2.90 and 10.03±2.81 years for females and males, respectively. Using the Demirjian method, the mean estimated DA was 11.26±3.02 years for females and 10.87±2.96 years for males. For Nolla method, the mean estimated DA was 9.80±3.41 and 9.53±3.14 years for females and males, respectively. The mean differences between the CA and DA according to the Demirjian and Nolla methods were 0.86 and -0.54 years for total study sample. Conclusion: Nolla method was found to be a more accurate method for estimating DA in northeastern Turkish population. Key words:Dental age, demirjian method, nolla method, chronological age.

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The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of surface conditioning protocols on the shear bond strength (SBS) of metal brackets to aged composite resin surfaces in vitro. Ninety composite resin discs, 6 mm in diameter and 2 mm in height, were prepared and treated with an ageing procedure. After ageing, the specimens were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: (1) control with no surface treatment, (2) 38 per cent phosphoric acid gel, (3) 9.6 per cent hydrofluoric acid gel, (4) airborne aluminium trioxide particle abrasion, (5) sodium bicarbonate particle abrasion, and (6) diamond bur. The metal brackets were bonded to composite surfaces by means of an orthodontic adhesive (Transbond XT). All specimens were stored in water for 1 week at 37°C and then thermocycled (1000 cycles, 5-55°C) prior to SBS testing. SBS values and residual adhesive on the composite surface were evaluated. Analysis of variance showed a significant difference (P = 0.000) between the groups. Group 6 had the highest mean SBS (10.61 MPa), followed by group 4 (10.29 MPa). The results of this study suggest that a clinically acceptable bond strength can be achieved by surface conditioning of aged resin composite via the application of hydrofluoric acid, aluminium trioxide particle abrasion, sodium bicarbonate particle abrasion, or a diamond bur.

The aim of this investigation was to compare the traditional method of manual cephalometric tracing with four different computerized tracing programs, where the lateral cephalograms were scanned at 300 dpi and digitized onscreen. Thirty randomly selected cephalometric radiographs were used in this study. Four programs Dolphin Imaging, Vistadent, Nemoceph, and Quick Ceph were evaluated. Three dental, 11 skeletal, and 1 soft tissue parameters were measured that consisted of 5 linear and 10 angular measurements. Statistical analysis was carried out using multivariate analysis of variance and Box's and Levene's tests. No statistically significant difference was found between manual tracing and the computerized tracing programs. The measurements obtained with the cephalometric analysis programs used in the study were reliable.