“What is advanced bone age?”
My son is 13-years-old and we had him examined because we felt that he was unusually short for his age. The doctor explained that he has 'advanced bone age'. What does this mean?
3 Answers
Dr. Bin S. Sung
Pediatrician
Advanced bone age means the bone age is > 2 Standard Deviation, i.e., older than your actual age. For instance, a 13 year-old child's bone age is > 15 year-old. If your bone age is younger than your actual age, that means you are a late bloomer. On the contrary, if your bone age is advanced, then you grow too fast as compared to your actual age.
It means that his bone age is older than his chronological age. This means that he will stop growing earlier than expected. How much difference depends on the actual age that is found. So advanced bone age can be seen with short stature.
If he did an X-ray of his hand and his bone age is advanced (more than) his stated age, he has less change of catching up his growth. If his bone age is below his stated aged, he has more of a chance of getting normal height; this is called constitutional delay.
