Association Between Chronological and Skeletal Ages Among a Sample of Saudi Male Children.

Assessment of skeletal maturity is a necessary clinical need in orthodontics and other health professions. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to detect the association between chronological age and skeletal age in a selected Saudi male sample and to compare their skeletal maturity rate with other populations. MATERIALS and METHODS: Hand-wrist radiographs were obtained for 115 subjects and the skeletal age for each subject was determined using a standard hand-wrist radiographic atlas. Also, the skeletal maturity stage for each subject was established using Björk assessment method. Statistical tests were performed to detect significant differences between chronological and skeletal ages at different skeletal maturity stages. The rate of skeletal maturity of the participating Saudi sample was also compared to analogous values that were previously established for other populations. RESULTS: The findings of the present study indicated that the participating Saudi children had a tendency towards late maturation with the mean skeletal age of the participating subjects being significantly lower (P