A correlative study of dental age and cervical vertebrae maturation

The operational goal of orthodontics in a growing child is to maximize the growth potential and guide towards a pattern of optimal development. Growth standards are generally based on chronological age that alone provides little insight for indentifying the stage of development progression. The study was aimed to explore if canine calcification and cervical vertebrae maturation could be used for assessment of skeletal maturity. The study comprised of 45 males (10-13 years) and 45 females (9-12 years). Hand wrist radiograph was employed as skeletal maturity indicator, Lateral cephalogram to show cervical vertebrae maturation and intra-oral periapical X-ray of right maxillary and mandibular canine for dental maturation. Statistically strong correlations were drawn between the three variables. Statistically strong correlation were found between skeletal and cervical vertebrae maturation in both males and females (r = 0.849, 0.932), skeletal maturity indicator and canine calcification for both male and female (r = 0.635, 0.891), Indicating thereby that cervical vertebrae maturation and canine calcification can be useful for assessing skeletal maturity.