Dental and chronological ages as determinants of peak growth period and its relationship with dental calcification stages

Purpose:To investigate the relationship between dental, chronological, and cervical vertebral maturation growth in the peak growth period, aswell as to study the association between the dental calcification phases and the skeletal maturity stages during the same growthperiod.Methods:Subjects were selected from orthodontic pre-treatment cohorts consisting of 420 subjects where 255 were identified and enrolled intothe study, comprising 145 girls and 110 boys. The lateral cephalometric and panoramic radiographs were examined from the archivesof the Department of Orthodontics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Dental age was assessed according to the method ofDemirjian, and skeletal maturation according to the Cervical Vertebral Maturation Method. Statistical elaboration included SpearmanBrown formula, descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and regression analysis, paired samples t-test, and Spearman’srho correlation coefficient.Results:Chronological and dental age showed a high correlation for both gender(r =0.741 for boys, r = 0.770 for girls, p<0.001). Thestrongest correlation was for the CVM Stage IV for both males (r=0.554) and females (r=0.68). The lowest correlation was for theCVM Stage III in males (r=0.433, p<0.001) and for the CVM Stage II in females (r=0.393, p>0.001). The t-test revealed statisticallysignificant differences between these variables (p<0.001) during the peak period. A statistically significant correlation (p<0.001)between tooth calcification and CVM stages was determined. The second molars showed the highest correlation with CVM stages(CVMS) (r= 0.65 for boys, r = 0.72 for girls).Conclusion:Dental age was more advanced than chronological for both boys and girls for all CVMS. During the peak period these differenceswere more pronounced. Moreover, all correlations between skeletal and dental stages were statistically significant. The secondmolars showed the highest correlation whereas the canines showed the lowest correlation for both gender.