PhD defence O. (Olja) Chaves- Grgić

Dissertation in short:

Assessment of pediatric maturation is widely used in both clinical and research settings. It is applied in the diagnosis and treatment of children with different endocrine disorders, when planning orthodontic treatment, constructing growth charts, and in the field of forensic medicine. Therefore, understanding the maturational process and factors governing it is of great importance for researchers and clinicians. Pediatric fractures have been shown as a prevalent interruption of the developmental process with a high impact on children and possible consequences on maturation and growth. Therefore, there is also a high demand to investigate the determinants of fracture risk in the pediatric population. Lastly, the pediatric population requires particular attention in the diagnostic workflow due to higher sensitivity to radiation compared to adults. Recently, the European Society of Radiology recognized the necessity for an update in the guidelines to enhance radiation protection of the pediatric population. Such a requirement emphasizes the necessity to continue screening for new tools and techniques to assess developmental health that would spare unnecessary radiation. Therefore, our quest in this work was to search for determinants of healthy maturation and fractures in children, to evaluate two new techniques for skeletal health assessment in children, and to interrogate the relationship between skeletal and dental maturation in a large population-based setting.