Relationship between midpalatal suture maturation and age and maturation of cervical vertebrae: radiographic evaluation

Objective: To evaluate the stages of midpalatal suture (MPS) maturation in patients older than 15 years, and to determine the correlation between the stage of MPS maturation and age and cervical vertebral maturation (CVM). Materials and Method: Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans of 50 patients (29 female and 21 male; mean age, 19.79 ± 4.09 years) were evaluated. Good quality CBCT images from 15–30-year-old patients for evaluation of impacted canines or determination of orthognathic surgery were selected. The CBCT images were evaluated at two different time intervals for determination of the stages of MPS and CVM. The stages of MPS maturation were classified as A, B, C, D, or E using the axial sections by using a method validated previously. The stages of CVM were classified using sagittal sections of the CBCT images. Intra-examiner agreement was assessed using the Kappa test. The correlations between MPS maturation and chronological age and CVM were assessed using Spearman’s rank correlation analysis. Results: The Kappa coefficients for intra-examiner agreement were 0.837 and 0.865 for classification of the stages of MPS maturation and CVM, respectively. No significant correlation was observed between chronological age and maturation of MPS (r = 0.212, p = 0.139) and between the stages of CVM and maturation of MPS (r = 0.030, p = 0.839). Conclusion: The limitation of our study was a small sample size, and, on the basis of our results, neither CVM nor chronological age could be used as a convenient tool to determine the stage of MPS maturation in 15–30-year-old patients.