Comparative study between cervical vertebrae and hand-wrist maturation for the assessment of skeletal age

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare the cervical vertebrae maturity, using a lateral cephalogram,which is routinely taken before orthodontic treatment and is included as a part of the patient’srecord, with hand-wrist maturation method. Materials and methods: The study group comprised ofsixty subjects of Bangalore, Indian, origin, aged between 9-18 years. Hand wrist radiograph and lateralcephalograms were taken for these subjects. Assessment of skeletal maturation was done using SkeletalMaturity Indicators (SMI’s) from hand-wrist radiograph and Cervical Vertebrae Maturity Indicators(CVMI’s) from lateral cephalogram. A pair wise comparison for skeletal age assessment stages was doneusing Wilcoxon sign rank test and proportions was compared using Chi-Square test for statistical analysis.Results: Skeletal maturity assessed using the cervical vertebrae maturation index (CVMI) method andhand-wrist skeletal maturational index (SMI) method showed no statistical signifi cant difference for malesand females. However, females showed maturation at an early age as compared to males. Conclusions:Since properly utilized cervical vertebrae assessment provided a reliable assessment of pubertal growthspurt, it would be benefi cial to use a lateral cephalogram for skeletal maturity assessment and thereby eliminate the need for an additional radiograph (hand-wrist radiograph). This is cost effective and will alsoreduce the radiation exposure to the patient.