Skeletal Maturity Indicators

Growth biologically and histologically is a composite of morphogenetic and histogenetic changes occurring continuously over a period of time in response to genetic coding and environmental influences. Human growth is characterized by considerable variation in the rate of progress of different persons toward physiologic maturity. It is one of the most myriad variations in nature and plays an important role in the etiology of malocclusion and also in evaluation of diagnosis, treatment planning, retention and stability of any case.The developmental status of a child is usually assessed in relation to events that take place during the progress of growth. Thus, chronological age, dental development, height and weight measurements, sexual maturation characteristics and skeletal age are some biological indicators that have been used to identify stages of growth. So the aim of this book is to collect, analyze and segregate the various aspects of Skeletal Maturity Indicators in the literature of orthodontics and present the same in a concise systematic manner.