Skeletal Age in Orthodontics

Abstract

Aim: The relation between the skeletal age determined by hand-wrist and cervical vertebrae evaluation was studied Material and method: Hand-wrist and cephalograms with visible cervical vertebrae made at the same time in 97 girls of age 10-14 years and in 104 boys 11.5 to 15.5 old were examined. Skeletal age classification according to Björk on hand-wrist and according to Baccetti on cervical vertebrae were compared. Results: The correlation coefficient between hand-wrist and cervical vertebrae evaluation in boys was r = 0.80 and in girls was r = 0.67. The assessment of one indicator from another is possible in boys in 64%, in girls in 45%. Conclusion: The correlation between the methods is not high enough to substitute one method with another and to omit in all cases the X-ray picture of the hand.

Keywords

• skeletal age
• pubertal growth spurt
• growth changes in cervical vertebrae