Skeletal maturation in different anteroposterior and vertical skeletal growth patterns in female subjects

PURPOSE: The aim of the present work was to study the sequence of skeletal maturation in the various anteroposterior and vertical skeletal growth patterns and to detect whether differences existed between them. METHODS: Cephalograms of 861 growing and adolescent female patients were traced to categorize the subjects into 9 skeletal patterns. Each subject was assigned a skeletal maturational stage. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Bonferroni test were used to detect differences in the onset of the three growth stages (prepubertal, pubertal and postpubertal) between the 9 groups. The same statistical methods were used to detect differences between the mean ages at the three growth stages within each group. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were found between the mean ages of pubertal and postpubertal growth stages between the 9 skeletal patterns. However, class III growers had a significantly earlier onset of prepubertal growth (10.25 ± 1.56 years) when compared to that of class II high angle cases (11.11 ± 1.67 years; P < 0.01). Also, significant differences were found between the mean ages at the three growth stages within the groups. CONCLUSION: A map was created defining the sequence of skeletal maturation for each skeletal growth pattern. This map defines clinically relevant differences in the starting time points and the optimum intervals of growth modification for each skeletal growth pattern.