My 12 year old son recently had xrays done for an orthodontist. One of the xrays that he requested was an xray of my son's left hand and wrist. I understand that this was assess the "growth plate" however he gave us no information about the xray. I have a copy of the xray and wondered how do I go about getting it read to determine my son's present bone age and growth assessment. What would you recommend? Is there a formula to determine my son's predicted height using this xray?

The x-ray your son had is called a bone age and it is used to determine skeletal maturity. There are a number of radiographic atlases of skeletal development of the hand and wrist. You should have your son's x-ray read by a radiologist who will compare his x-ray to a standard radiograph of the same sex. Using an atlas written by Greulich and Pyle, with your sons chronological age and his bone age, a reasonable good estimate of your son's ultimate height can be made.

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