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Skull changes after birth
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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In the growth of the skull after birth, you can trace three main periods. The first period - up to 7 years of age - is characterized by vigorous growth of the skull, especially in the occipital part.
During this period, the thickness of the bones of the skull at the first year of the child's life increases approximately 3-fold. In the bones of the arch, the outer and inner plates begin to form, between them - diploe. The mastoid process of the temporal bone develops, and in it - mastoid cells. Points of ossification continue to merge in growing bones. A bone external auditory canal is formed, which closes to the bone ring by the age of 5. By the age of 7, the fusion of parts of the frontal bone ends, and the parts of the latticed bone coalesce.
In the second period - from 7 years to the onset of puberty (12-13 years) - there is a slow, but uniform growth of the skull, especially in the base area. The skull's cranium is still growing, especially at 6-8 and 11-13 years old. The volume of the cerebral cavity cavity by the age of 10 reaches 1300 cm 3. By the age of 13, a scaly mastoid seam is overgrown. At this age, basically, the fusion of separate parts of the skull bones, developing from independent points of ossification, is completed.
The third period (from 13 to 20-23 years) is characterized by the growth of the predominantly facial section of the skull, the appearance of sexual differences. After 13 years there is a further thickening of the skull bones. The pneumatization of bones continues, as a result of which the skull mass decreases relatively while maintaining its strength. By the age of 20, the stitches between the sphenoid and occipital bones ossify. The growth of the skull base in length by this time ends.
After 20 years, especially after 30 years, gradual overgrowth of the seams of the cranial vault is observed. The first begins to overgrow the sagittal suture, its posterior part (22-35 years), then the coronal suture - in the middle part (24-41 years), lambdoid (26-42 years), mastoid-occipital (30-81 year); scaly suture rarely overgrown (V.V. Ginzburg). The process of overgrowing is individual. There are cases when the old people have all the seams of the skull well pronounced. In the elderly, along with the overgrowing of the seams, gradual changes in the facial skull are observed. Due to erasure and loss of teeth, the alveolar processes (alveolar arcs) of the jaws decrease. The facial skull is shortened. The bones of the skull become thinner and brittle.
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