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Updated: Jul 22, 2026

Creating Rigidly Stabilized Fractures for Assessing Intramembranous Ossification, Distraction Osteogenesis, or Healing of Critical Sized Defects
Published on: April 11, 2012
Ossification of the human stylohyoid ligament: a longitudinal study
K A Omnell1, C Gandhi, M L Omnell
1University of Washington, School of Dentistry, Seattle 98195-6370, USA.
Abstract:
We report the results of a longitudinal radiographic study of ossification of the stylohyoid ligament in a sample of patients treated for minor malocclusions. The results suggest that the vast majority of ossified sites in the stylohyoid ligaments are established during childhood and adolescence. The mean length of the sites shows a fairly rapid, linear increase with age until the end of adolescence; any further increase is nonlinear and occurs at a much slower rate. In young individuals the ossified sites were predominant in the superior part of the ligament. With increasing age ossified sites became prevalent also in other parts of the ligament. Ossified sites in the inferior part close to the hyoid bone were more common than previously reported.
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