Dental emergence stages and the pubertal growth spurt.

Longitudinal data on emergence of permanent teeth and pubertal growth in body height were collected as part of a prospective study of the growth and development of 212 randomly selected Swedish urban children. The onset, peak and end of the pubertal growth spurt were defined on the unsmoothed incremental curve of height. The dental development was assessed by means of dental emergence stages representing gingival emergence of various groups of permanent teeth. There was a sex-specific pattern in the relationship between dental development and the pubertal growth spurt. At all pubertal growth events the dental development was more advanced in boys than in girls. A statistically significant association between dental development and pubertal growth was found only in girls, and was then only weak. Because of the low correlation between age at the occurrence of pubertal growth events and age at the attainment of dental emergence stages, these stages have little value as indicators of the pubertal growth spurt. The sex-specific pattern and the great individual variation in the relationship between dental development and somatic growth may have implications for orthodontic treatment.