Usefulness of the dental age obtained by orthopantomography as an indicator of the physical age.

Methods of determining a child's growth and development which are exact, reliable and also recordable objectively are important in confirming, treating and controlling the effect of treatment in both medicine and dentistry. A roentgenological determination of the skeletal age is generally used in estimating the physical age of a child. In this study, (1) the dental age, which is calculated from the dentition and expressed in so called dental points, and (2) the skeletal age or boneage, which is calculated from the bones, were compared with (3) the chronological or calendar age of the child, and an attempt was made to determine the reliability of the dental age as an indicator of physical development. The skeletal age can be determined by counting the total of ossification centres in the extremities of one side (ELGENMARK 1946) Fig. 1. Elgenmark's method is rather accurate, but its greatest disadvantage is that it can only be used up to the 5th year. Many developmental disturbances occur after this age. Furthermore, Elgenmark's method requires a great number of films, which is relatively laborious and imposes a heavy radiation load. Measurement of the dimensions of the bones of the left or right wrist, palm and fingers has given strikingly accurate results (EKLöF and RINGERTZ 1966). The great number of measurements, however, makes this method more