Chronological age and cervical vertebral maturation among children and adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: the importance of distinguishing chronological from skeletal age or bone maturation has been recognized in medical, orthopedic and dental practice. Estimation of bone development on the basis of cervical vertebrae has proved to be a reliable method. Objective: relate the stages of bone maturation based on cervical vertebral development as described by Baccetti to the chronological age of children and adolescents aged 8-14 years attending a dental clinic. Methods: probabilistic sampling was used to select 130 children from the city of Cali, Colombia. Lateral skull radiography was performed to evaluate the stages of cervical vertebral bone maturation using the method described by Baccetti. Results: the correlation coefficient between chronological age and cervical maturation stage was r= 0.69, showing a moderate relationship between the two variables for the children studied. Maturation stages and gender accounted for 50.4 % of the variability in chronological age. Significant differences were found for all maturation stages (p 0.05). Conclusions: It is possible to determine a model to explain the change in chronological age depending on the stage of cervical bone maturation and sex of the child, based on moderate positive relationship between chronological age and bone maturation evidenced through C3 stadium.

Keywords

• maduración cervical
• determinación de la edad por el esqueleto
• vértebras cervicales
• crecimiento.