Dental age assessment in orthodontic patients with and without skeletal malocclusions.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this report was to investigate the dental development in an orthodontic patient population with and without different sagittal skeletal malocclusions. SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION: Department of Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Ataturk University, Turkey. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study was performed on a sample of panoramic radiographs taken from 525 orthodontic patients (Class II: 186, Class III: 177, Class I: 162) aged between 9.00 and 15.00 years. Dental age (DA) from panoramic radiographs was assessed. Statistical analyses showing the differences between chronological age (CA) and DA were compared by using the one-way anova, paired, and Student's t-tests. RESULTS: Both genders were advanced in dental maturity when compared with the reference samples (p = 0.000). The mean difference between CA and DA in orthodontic patients with different skeletal malocclusions was approximately twice the difference in the Class I group. However, the difference between CA and DA was statistically significant for girls in Class III group (p = 0.021). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that DA of patients with sagittal skeletal malocclusions was approximately twice more advanced when compared with patients without sagittal skeletal anomaly patterns.