Moorrees-Fanning-Hunt Stages
Definition
A 13-stage system of dental crown and root development derived from the Fels Longitudinal Study (1963), applied to mandibular teeth and forming the methodological backbone of subsequent dental age methods.
- Authors
- Coenraad Moorrees, Elizabeth Fanning, Edward Hunt
- Published
- 1963
- Data source
- Fels Longitudinal Study
- Stage count
- 13 stages of crown and root development
- Applies to
- Mandibular teeth
Common questions
Why only mandibular teeth?+
The original Fels study radiographs were scored on lower jaw teeth, since these develop with a more consistent sequence and are easier to standardise for measurement across a longitudinal sample. Later researchers extended similar staging schemes to maxillary teeth separately.
How is this used in age estimation casework?+
An examiner compares a subject's dental radiograph against the reference stages to assign a developmental stage per tooth, then converts that stage to an age range using published tables, most useful for juveniles and young adults where root apices are still forming.
What limits its accuracy?+
The reference sample is a mid-20th-century North American population, so population-specific calibration is recommended before applying it elsewhere, and precision decreases once third molar development is the only remaining indicator.
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