The relationship between dental calcification stages and skeletal maturation

The aim of the study was to investigate the relation between dental calcification stages and the skeletal maturation in hand and wrist region and cervical vertebrae.The sample include panoramic,handwrist, and lateral cephalometric radiographs of 550 subjects aged from 6.5to 17 years. Dental development was rated and skeletal maturation was evaluated.Thecorrelation was a highly significant positive correlationbetween dental calcification stages and hand wrist maturation stages ranged from 0.82 to 0.86 for females and 0.86 to 0.88 for males. The correlation between dental calcification and cervical vertebral maturation was ranged from 0.82 to 0.84 in females and 0.80 to 0.83 in males.Dental calcification stages can be used as a diagnostic tool for determining the growth in orthodontic patients.