The pattern of facial skeletal growth and its relationship to various common indexes of maturation.

Introduction: Sequential stages in the development of the hand, wrist, and cervical vertebrae commonly are used to assess maturation and predict the timing of the adolescent growth spurt. This approach is predicated on the idea that forecasts based on skeletal age must, of necessity, be superior to those based on chronologic age. This study was undertaken to test this reasonable, albeit largely unproved, assumption in a large, longitudinal sample.

If wishes were horses: functional appliances and growth modification.

Objectives: Aside from the common observation that functional appliances work, the literature has little to say about the means by which a correction is achieved and whether or not it differs from that produced by a single phase of fixed-appliance treatment. There seems to be relatively little interest in these basic questions. The purpose of this communication is to explore and discuss the action of functional appliances in light of their interaction with the gross mechanisms of craniofacial growth.