Assessment of skeletal and dental ages of children and adolescents with type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

The present study aimed to assess the skeletal and dental ages of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. Therefore, panoramic and hand-wrist radiographs of 82 patients, aged between 5 and 15 years, were collected and divided into case and control groups. The case group consisted of 41 panoramic and 41 hand-wrist radiographs of T1DM patients, whereas the control group consisted of 41 panoramic and 41 hand-wrist radiographs of patients without T1DM. Skeletal age was assessed according to the method of Greulich and Pyle (1999), whereas dental age was assessed according to the method of Nolla (1960). Chi-square tests revealed no statistically significant differences between skeletal and dental ages between the case and control groups (p > 0.05). However, in the case group, the skeletal age of females was greater than that of age-matched males (p = 0.005). Considering that skeletal and dental growth of the case and control groups were closely related, clinical interventions involving orthodontics and dentomaxillofacial orthopedics should be equally performed both for healthy and specific patient groups, such as those with T1DM.