OBJECTIVE: To assess the degree of correlation between mandibular growth and skeletal maturation in young melanodermic Brazilian women. METHODS: The authors examined 140 lateral teleradiographies and an additional 140 radiographies of hands and wrists of young female Brazilian melanodermic subjects aged 8 to 14 years with normal occlusion or Angle Class I malocclusion, who had not been subjected to previous orthodontic treatment. Using the hand and wrist radiographies, the authors evaluated the development of ossification centers in the proximal phalanx of the 3rd finger and the distal epiphysis of the radius bone, drawing on the method described by Eklöf and Ringertz. The lateral teleradiographies enabled an analysis of frontal sinus pneumatization according to the method described by Ruf and Pancherz, and of the cephalometric measurements representative of mandibular growth, namely, Co-Go, Co-Gn, Go-Gn, Fg-Pg. The data were statistically analyzed using Pearson's Correlation to determine the degree of relationship between variables. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: A highly significant correlation was found between ossification centers observed on the hand and wrist radiographies and cephalometric measurements representative of the mandibular growth (r = 0.777). Although statistically significant, there was a low correlation between frontal sinus pneumatization and the progression of skeletal maturity (r = 0.306), as well as a relationship between frontal sinus pneumatization and the cephalometric measurements representative of mandibular growth (r = 0.218).
Skeletal maturation; Melanodermic subjects; Hand and wrist radiographies; Mandibular growth; Frontal sinus
