Correlation of Dental Calcification and Skeletal Maturaty Indicators

Abstract

Assessing maturational status and pubertal growth spurt of patient have a considerable influence on diagnosis, treatment planning, and the outcome of orthodontic treatment. The hand - wrist radiograph is commonly used for the assessment skeletal develop-ment. There is association between skeletal maturity and different stages of dental calcification, thus stages of dental calcification might be used as a first - level diagnostic tool to estimate the timing of the pubertal growth spurt. The study analyzed the effectiveness of using tooth calcification stage instead of hand - wrist radiograph to assess skeletal maturity. A total of 200 subjects (100 males 100 females) with mean age 12.23 ± 2.33 years visiting the Children's Hospital and the Institute Of Child Health Lahore, were included in the study. The skeletal maturity indicators and dental cal-cification stages were evaluated. Result showed that the canine stage F coincided with the MP3 stage and indicates the onset of a period of accelerating growth. The canine stage G was related to S stage and MP₃C-AP stage, and was indicative of rapid growth velocity.

Key Words:  Hand - wrist radiograph, skeletal matu-rity indicator, dental calcification stage.