The Relationships between Dental Age, Chronological Age and Bone Age in Turkish Adolescents with Constitutional Delay of Growth

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between dental age and bone age in Turkish adolescents with constitutional delay of growth and compare them with a group of normal, healthy adolescents. Left hand and wrist radiographs and dental panaromic radiographs of 33 adolescents (25 boys and 8 girls) aged between 10 and 16 years with constitutionally delayed growth were assessed. The control group comprised 41 healthy adolescents (24 boys, 17 girls) aged between 10 and 16 years. Bone age was determined according to Greulich and Pyle; dental age was assessed using the Demirjian method. In the control group, no statistical difference was found between chronological, bone and dental ages. In the group of adolescents with constitutional growth delay, there was no significant difference between chronological age and dental age, but the differences between dental age and bone age and between chronological age and bone age were found to be statistically significant. It was found that Demirjian's dental age assessment is a valid method for scoring dental age in Turkish adolescents. Adolescents with constitutional delay of growth had dental maturation appropriate for chronological age, but not for bone age.

Secular trend in the maturation of permanent teeth in a sample of Turkish children over the past 30 years

“…When the Demirjian data set was used for different populations, it mostly overestimated the age rather than underestimated it [4], which means that the subjects studied exhibited dentally advanced development compared with French-Canadian children [44]. Although it was validated for estimating dental age in Turkish adolescents in one study [45], data mainly show that this method is not suitable for Turkish children due to its tendency to overestimate dental age. However, in this study, the overestimation was not considered because it will not mask the secular trend.…”

Clinical Dilemmas in Evaluating the Short Child

“…Specifically, the age at which a child had their first tooth eruption and loss is valuable information that can help determine elements of constitutional delay. 8 Children with delayed tooth eruption often have skeletal immaturity that is seen in constitutional delay of growth.…”

Demirjian's system for estimating the dental age of northeastern Brazilian children

“…The 1,491 images were assessed by the same observer who applied Demirjian's system [5], as described in the literature [1,2,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]22]. In the case of missing teeth, the appropriate corresponding tooth was assessed.…”