title: Correlation between dental and cervical vertebral maturation in Iranian females.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Considerable variations in the development stage among patients of the same chronological age have led to introduce the concept of the developmental age based on the maturation of different organs such as cervical vertebrae or teeth.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between the stages of tooth calcification and the cervical vertebral maturation in Iranian females.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four hundred females (age range, 8 to 14 years) participated in the study. To determine the dental maturational stage, calcification of the mandibular teeth except for third molars were rated according to the method suggested by Demirjian et al. To evaluate the stage of skeletal maturation, cervical vertebral morphologic changes were assessed on lateral cephalometric radiographs according to the method explained by Baccetti et al. Correlations between bone maturation and teeth calcification were showed by Spearman's correlation and Kendall's tau-b coefficients. The relevant associations were investigated by ordinal logistic regression models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Correlations between the two stages were observed in the first and second premolars, canine and central incisors. All these correlations were significant. The association between cervical vertebral maturation and tooth calcification was greatest in the lateral incisor (odds ratio (OR) = 11, 95% confidence interval (CI): 6.6-18.3). However, considering the 95% CI for OR, no significant difference was detected among the second molar, first molar and lateral incisor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The relationship between calcification of teeth and maturation of cervical bones was significant. Bone maturation can be predicted by using teeth calcification stages, especially in the second molar, first molar and lateral incisor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Solmaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Valizadeh
authors.forename: Nakissa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eil
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ehsani
authors.forename: Hooman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bakhshandeh
keywords: Cervical Vertebrae; Radiography, Panoramic; Tooth Calcification