Читать книгу Orthodontic Treatment of Impacted Teeth - Adrian Becker - Страница 17

Adrian Becker

  Dental age

  Assessing dental age in the clinical setting – the Jerusalem method

  When is a tooth considered to be impacted?

  Impacted teeth and local space loss

  Whose problem?

  The timing of the surgical intervention

  Patient motivation and the orthodontic option

In order for us to understand what an impacted tooth is and whether and when it should be treated, we must first define our perception of normal development of the dentition as a whole and the time‐frame within which it operates.

The development of a child has many components. In assessing the developmental age of a child, it is necessary to consider and correlate these components and there is a hypothetical mean for each, though the overall development rate rarely falls exactly on this mean. A child’s growth and development rate may also be different for each of the developmental components.

 Somatic age: A child may be tall for his or her age, so that his or her somatic age may be considered to be advanced.

 Skeletal age: By studying radiographs of the progress of ossification of the epiphyseal cartilages of the bones in the hands of a young patient (the carpal index) and comparing this with average data values for children of his or her age, we are in a position to assess the child’s skeletal age.

 Sexual maturation age: The sexual age of a child is related to the appearance of primary and secondary sexual features.

 Mental age: This is assessed by intelligence quotient (IQ) tests.

 Behavioural age: This is an assessment of a child’s behaviour and his or her self‐concept.

These are among the indices complementing the chronological age, which is calculated directly from the date registered on the child’s birth certificate. All these parameters are essential in the comprehensive assessment of a child’s developmental progress.