The capitate/hamate and the radius/ulna components of the wrist joint were compared to the dental maturation age in order to determine the relationship between index bones, skeletal age and dental age. The skeletal age (Greulich and Pyle) of a group of children was determined using serial radiographs of hands and wrists and compared to dental age (Demirjian and Goldstein) in each child. We evaluated 534 radiographs of children ranging in age from 2 to 16. (protocol # 1997-0809: Dental Maturation was last approved by UIC IRB # 1 on October 25, 2000) The correlation coefficient (r) calculated for both the capitate/hamate and the radius/ulna components with regard to the dental age for this entire sample was 0.9. When age segregated subsets were compared for capitate/hamate vs. dental age the correlation coefficient was 0.2 in the group under 3 years of age while in the group under 6 r=0.7. In the group above 6 years of age r=0.8. The radius/ulna vs. dental age correlation for the same age groups were 0.2, 0.6 and 0.8 respectively.
The results indicate that both the capitate/hamate and the radius/ulna components of the wrist joint can be used as indicators of maturation assessment in lieu of composite hand calculations. This data also demonstrates that there is considerable risk in early predictions of growth patterns for treatment planning.