SKELETAL AGE ASSESSMENT IN PATIENTS WITH TRANSVERSE MAXILLARY DEFICIT UNDERGOING RAPID MAXILLARY EXPANSION

Abstract

Aim: The study was governed by two main goals: 1) To assess the skeletal maturation of young patients who were undergoing orthodontic treatment with rapid maxillary expansion; 2) To compare their chronological age with their skeletal maturation stage. Material and methods: Lateral cephalometric radiographs of 74 patients were randomly selected and analyzed. The sample included 51 girls and 23 boys in late mixed and permanent dentition, with an average age of 13.2 (± 2.24) in the range from 9 to 17 years. The assessment of skeletal maturation followed the cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) methods of Baccetti et al. and Lamparski. Results: The results showed 53% consistency and 47% discrepancy between the chronological and skeletal age of the patients. In the age group 9-13.5 years, the discrepancies reached 73.5%. The difference in percentages was statistically significant, p <.001. The discrepancies tended towards higher skeletal age: 80% in the whole sample and 86.25% among patients aged 9 - 13.50 years. The difference between the patients classified in higher and lower stages of skeletal age was statistically significant, p <.001. Conclusion: Chronological age is an unreliable indicator of growth potential in adolescent patients before and after growth spurt. The discrepancy is particularly prominent in patients before growth spurt, where skeletal age suggests a higher level of maturation than predicted by the patients’ chronological age.

Keywords

• Cervical vertebral maturation
• Skeletal maturity
• Chronological age
• Rapid maxillary expansion