Relationship between periodontal status of mandibular incisors and selected cephalometric parameters : Preliminary results.

PURPOSE: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the correlation between the periodontal tissue of mandibular incisors and several dentoalveolar and skeletal cephalometric parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample consisted of 35 patients (mean age 26.42 ± 8.02 years). Eligibility criteria included good overall health status with no history of dental trauma, congenital defects, active periodontal diseases, restorative and prosthetic treatment in the area of the mandibular incisors. Gingival recession width and height (GRW, GRH), gingival thickness (GT), width of keratinized gingiva (WKT) and clinical attachment loss (CAL) were evaluated at 140 lower incisors. Incisors inclination (1-:ML), skeletal class (ANB, WITS), intermaxillary angle (NL:ML) and mandibular symphysis dimensions (symph. length and width) were assessed in cephalograms. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used for statistical analysis at the P < 0.05 level. RESULTS: A statistically significant positive moderate correlation was found for GT and WITS and also symph. length. WKT correlated positively with ANB, WITS and symph. length, with moderate strength of the correlation. GRW, GRH and CAL did not correlate with any cephalometric parameters. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicated evidence for an association between WKT and GT and some cephalometric variables-ANB, WITS, and symphysis length.

Assessment of the Dental Age of Children in the Polish Population with Comparison of the Demirjian and the Willems Methods.

BACKGROUND Dental age is less affected than the bone age by nutritional and hormonal factors. The assessment of dental age in children is of value in clinical and forensic practice. The aims of this study were to compare the Demirjian method and the Willems method in the assessment of dental age in children in Poland and to consider the need to standardize dental age assessment. MATERIAL AND METHODS Polish children of Caucasian ethnicity (n=1,002) who were treated at a single orthodontic center between 1994-2016 included girls (n-540) and boys (n=462) aged between 4-17 years, and 1,002 panoramic radiographs were reviewed. Dental age was assessed using the Demirjian method and the Willems method, the findings of the two methods were compared with the chronological age of the study participants. RESULTS Following statistical analysis, both the Demirjian method and the Willems method overestimated the dental age of the younger study participants, and underestimated the dental age of the older study participants. Both the Demirjian method and the Willems method had similar accuracy in estimating the chronological and dental age in the Polish population. CONCLUSIONS In the assessment of dental age in Polish children from panoramic radiographs, both the Demirjian method and the Willems method were accurate and should still be used as a method of choice. However, it seems reasonable to create international standards for the assessment of dentition maturity for this population to obtain a more acceptable range of error values between the dental age and chronological age.