A practical method for determining pubertal growth spurt.
BACKGROUND
It is important to evaluate skeletal maturation in orthodontic treatment. Hand-wrist and cervical maturation stages have been shown to be correlated with skeletal growth changes during puberty. The cervical vertebrae have 6 maturation phases, whereas the medial phalange of the third finger has 5 stages; a modified version has 6 stages. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation of the cervical vertebrae maturation index with the modified medial phalange index.


METHODS
Lateral cephalometric and left-hand medial phalange radiographs of 150 males between the ages of 9 and 19 who were referred for orthodontic treatment were examined.


RESULTS
The 6 modified medial phalange stages were found to correlate with the 6 cervical vertebral maturation stages.


CONCLUSIONS
Because cervical vertebrae stage is a reliable maturation indicator, the medial phalange of the third finger can be used instead to assess a subject's skeletal maturation.
Ozer
Törün
T
Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Orthodontics, University of Dicle, Diyarbakir, Turkey. torun@dicle.edu.tr
Kama
Jalen Devecioğlu
JD
Ozer
Senem Yiğit
SY
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D002508:Cephalometry; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000254:growth & development*; D002648:Child; D050278:Finger Phalanges / Q000254:growth & development*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results