Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Orthodontics Department, Babol University of Medical Sciences
2 Epidemiologist, Babol University of Medical Sciences
Abstract
Objective: The use of lateral cephalometric radiography for evaluating cervical vertebral bone age is a method that can substitute for the hand-wrist radiography method. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between the cervical vertebral bone age, chronological age and hand-wrist bone age.
Methods: Lateral cephalometric and hand-wrist radiographs of 125 girls (8-13 wars) who needed orthodontic treatments were chosen. The dimensions of the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebral bodies were measured by a digital micrometer caliper with 0.02-mm accuracy and determined a regression formula to obtain cervical vertebral bone age. The data were collected and analyzed by a stepwise multiple regression analysis, and the results were compared with those obtained using the hand-wrist radiography method.
Results: Our investigation shows that the correlation coefficient between cervical vertebral bone age and hand-wrist bone age (0.734) is significantly (p<0.01) higher than that obtained for the relationship between cervical vertebral bone age and chronological age (0.367). The correlation between hand-wrist bone age and chronological age was 0.701. In addition, we show that the average difference (absolute value) between cervical vertebral bone age and hand-wrist bone age (0.71±0.59 years) is significantly (p<0.05) lower than that between cervical vertebral bone age and chronological age (1.27± 0.92 years).
Conclusions: By using lateral cephalometric radiography, it is possible to carry out a proper evaluation of skeletal maturity without any need for exposing the patient to extra radiation.
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