During the summer, many children with dwarfism and precocious puberty came to our clinic. Among them, we found 6 cases, 2 boys and 4 girls, whose actual ages were only 10-12 years old, which is the age when they are in the 6th grade, a time when we think they should grow in size and body, but these children had no change in height for about a year, the boy had a voice change, and the girl had already had her period. Later, bone age films were taken for these children, and it turned out that the bone ages had all basically closed. When parents are informed of this result, they often ask why this is so and what else can be done. Usually such children have already entered the late stage of development, and growth arrest occurs after a sudden surge in height. I can only tell them helplessly that there is nothing that can be done at this time, the epiphysis is closed and growth has stopped, but there is something that can be done if it is found earlier. Parents and children are very painful and hard to face this reality. I would like to write some knowledge about bone age film here, hoping that parents who are short and have signs of early development can bring their children to review bone age film regularly for half a year, so as to prevent early, pay attention to height, be alert to early maturity and avoid more families leaving regrets.
Bone age is the age of the skeleton. During the growth period of a person, from infancy to adulthood, the shape and size of the skeleton will change. This change can be observed through a left orthopantomograph, i.e., a bone age film. The data related to bone age are combined from the average data of children of the same age and race. Height at each age is highly correlated with height in adulthood, so that based on current bone age, it is possible to predict how much more height is likely to grow. Combining a child’s current height and bone age provides insight into their growth and development and predicts adult lifetime height.