Relationships Between Dental Calcification Stages and Skeletal Maturity

Abstract

Background: Assessment of skeletal maturity and dental development is a common clinical practice in many health professions especially for age estimation in forensic sciences and for growth modification in orthodontics & dentofacial orthopedics  .

The aim of this study: To investigate the relationship between the stages of calcification of various mandibular teeth ( canine, first and second premolars, second and third molars )  and skeletal maturity stages among Syrian subjects . And, To determine the most  credible  tooth for  bone maturation assessment .

Materials and methods: The samples were derived from dental panoramic and hand-wrist radiographs of 120 subjects (60 males and 60 females). Calcification of the mandibular canines, first and second premolars, and second and third molars was rated according to the system of Demirjian. To evaluate the stage of skeletal maturation of each hand-wrist radiograph , system of Björk was used which consists of nine ossification events .

Results: Statistically significant relationships were determined between dental calcification and skeletal maturity stages according to Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients. Correlations between dental development and skeletal maturity ranged from 0.429 to 0.873 for males and 0.555 to 0.877 for females (P <0 .05). The second molar showed the highest correlation for female subjects and the canine showed the highest correlation for male subjects . Third molar showed the lowest correlation for male and female subjects. Root formation of the canine as well as the first premolar was completed in the majority of the subjects at  MP3cap stage . The second molar stage G for female and male subjects were related to the MP3cap stage .

Conclusions: Teeth calcification stages from panoramic radiograph (which is a routine diagnostic radiograph for orthodontic treatment) might be clinically useful as a maturity indicator. However, further study is recommended in a larger sample size, and future studies should address development of the canines and second molars.

Key words: Skeletal maturation – Dental maturity – Teeth calcification – Hand Wrist