The Importance of Methods for Determination of Squeletal and Dental Age in Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry – A Literature Review

Abstract

The stage of human development is closely related to bone or dental maturity, being essential for the choice of treatment for dentofacial changes in children and adolescents by orthodontists and pediatric dentists. There are several biological indicators to determine an individual's maturation, such as chronological age and hormonal changes, but these indicators can suffer interference. Aiming at a more accurate determination of development and growth peaks, for a better diagnosis and treatment plan, several methods have been developed to determine skeletal age and dental age, these being the assessment of carpal maturation, the morphology of the cervical vertebrae, bone fusion of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis and the median palatal suture, as well as the stages of dental calcification. The evaluation of hand and wrist radiographs is the gold standard for predicting skeletal age, and its correlation with other methods is already evident. Therefore, it is possible to use the assessment of cervical vertebrae and dental ages by Nolla and Demirjian.

Keywords

• age determination by skeleton
• age determination by teeth
• carpal bones
• cone-beam computed tomography