title: Five radiographic methods for assessing skeletal maturity in a Spanish population: is there a correlation?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The need for accurate techniques of estimating age has sharply increased in line with the rise in illegal migration and the political, economic and socio-demographic problems that this poses in developed countries today. The methods routinely employed for determining chronological age are mainly based on determining skeletal maturation using radiological techniques. The objective of this study was to correlate five different methods for assessing skeletal maturation.
  
  
  METHODS
  606 radiographs of growing patients were analyzed, and each patient was classified according to two cervical vertebral-based methods, two hand-wrist-based methods and one tooth-based method. Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient was applied to assess the relationship between chronological age and the five methods of assessing maturation, as well as correlations between the five methods (p < 0.05).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Spearman's rank correlation coefficients for chronological age and cervical vertebral maturation stage using both methods were 0.656/0.693 (p < 0.001), respectively, for males. For females, the correlation was stronger for both methods. The correlation coefficients for chronological age against the two hand-wrist assessment methods were statistically significant only for Fishman's method, 0.722 (p < 0.001) and 0.839 (p < 0.001), respectively for males and females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The cervical vertebral, hand-wrist and dental maturation methods of assessment were all found to correlate strongly with each other, irrespective of gender, except for Grave and Brown's method. The results found the strongest correlation between the second molars and females, and the second premolar and males.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study sheds light on and correlates with the five radiographic methods most commonly used for assessing skeletal maturation in a Spanish population in southern Europe.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Stomatology , Craniofacial Research Group CTS353, University of Seville , Seville , Spain.|b Department of Stomatology IV , School of Dentistry, Complutense University of Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Camacho-Basallo
authors.affiliation: a Department of Stomatology , Craniofacial Research Group CTS353, University of Seville , Seville , Spain.|b Department of Stomatology IV , School of Dentistry, Complutense University of Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Rosa-María
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Yáñez-Vico
authors.affiliation: a Department of Stomatology , Craniofacial Research Group CTS353, University of Seville , Seville , Spain.|b Department of Stomatology IV , School of Dentistry, Complutense University of Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Solano-Reina
authors.affiliation: a Department of Stomatology , Craniofacial Research Group CTS353, University of Seville , Seville , Spain.|b Department of Stomatology IV , School of Dentistry, Complutense University of Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iglesias-Linares
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000254:growth & development; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008963:Molar / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000254:growth & development; D011859:Radiography; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014953:Wrist / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000254:growth & development
keywords: Orthodontics; age; radiographic; skeletal maturity