Assessing Growth and Development with Panoramic Radiographs and Cephalometric Attachments: A critical tool for dental diagnosis and treatment planning

Learn the factors acting as determinants of relative dental and skeletal maturity findings. It is recommended that radiographs be made periodically including both during the mixed dentition (8-9 year old) and adolescence (12-14 year old) to evaluate growth and development, and to look for asymptomatic dental disease [1-3]. Substantial differences in the assessed biological and the known chronological age can be indicators of a variety of inherited and congenital conditions. Further, local failure in dental eruption within the normal time range can be evidence of dental impaction and possibly of a pathological process such as a hamartoma, cyst, or tumor. Failure to remove causes of impaction prior to cessation of the normal eruption time can lead to otherwise unnecessary surgical orthodontics, a poorer outcome prognosis, and perhaps to a sequence of time consuming, expensive, and less than ideal replacement strategies [4]. Assessing Growth and Development with Panoramic Radiographs and Cephalometric Attachments: A critical tool for dental diagnosis and treatment planning