The dental development in patients with Aperts syndrome.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this retrospective study was to quantify the level of dental developmental delay in a group of patients with Aperts syndrome when compared to matched controls. METHODS: Twenty-six Dental Panoramic Tomographic (DPT) radiographs of patients with Apert syndrome attending Great Ormond Street Hospital were compared to controls (n = 29) from the Eastman Dental Hospital, UK. Dental development was assessed using the staging systems of Demirjian and Haavikko, and dental age (DA) was estimated using the weighted averages method. RESULTS: Dental age, as estimated using the 12 stages of Haavikko and eight stages of Demirjian, suggested no statistical evidence of developmental delay between the Aperts and control group. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis 'that there is no difference in the dental development of subjects with Apert syndrome, when compared to a group of matched controls', was accepted.