Insulin Like Growth Factor-1―A Skeletal Maturity Indicator―A Review

In orthodontic treatment planning decisions assessment of growth status plays a vital role and that the adolescent growth spurt is considered an ideal time to mete out growth modification therapy. Various radiologic and non-radiologic skeletal maturity indicators have been in use with its attendant advantages and disadvantages. Insulin like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) is one such non-radiologic biomarker that could be used to estimate the amount of available growth present to help treat jaw discrepancies in the circumpubertal period of growth as the mean levels of it has been reported to be high during cicumpubertal growth. Internationally peer reviewed and valid indexed reference articles pertaining to IGF-1 and its predictive usefulness in estimating the peak pubertal growth spurt used alone or in combination with the other radiologic skeletal maturity indicators was segregated and diligently perused. Information gleaned from the literature review revealed that IGF-1 was indeed effective in assessing the circumpubertal growth spurt. It had a high correlation with the cervical stages C3 and C4 as seen on lateral cephalograms as also with the stages pertaining to peak pubertal growth as seen on handwrist radiographs and middle phalanx 3 (MP3) on periapical x-rays. IGF-1 was an effective and alternative biomarker for estimation of peak pubertal growth spurt used alone or in combination with the other radiologic biomarkers.