• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2013

In growing children it is frequently found that dental maturation is strongly influenced by the growth rate of maxilla or mandible. If there is evidence to prove this, it might be utilized as a criterion in the early diagnosis of skeletal malocclusion, even before the object's real skeletal features are yet revealed. The purpose of this study was to find out if the difference of dental maturation in over-grown mandible in children with skeletal Class III has any relationship with some skeletal features of mandible. 50 patients in Hellman dental age IIIA with normal occlusion and Class III malocclusion of mandibular over-growth type respectively were selected as study objects. The age estimation was performed on maxillary and mandibular teeth, eruption rate of the 2nd molars of each group have been measured on panoramic radiography, and the differences in dental age of the upper and lower jaw were analyzed under Demirijian's method. The results were as follows: The difference of dental age of maxillary and mandibular teeth between the two groups was 0.66 and 1.20 years respectively, with a higher difference in the experimental group (p < 0.05). The difference of eruption rate of the maxillary and mandibular second molar was not found between two group (p >0.05).