When Do Cranial Sutures Ossify?

At birth, the sutures decrease in size (molding) and allow the skull to become smaller. In children, the suture enables the skull to expand with the rapidly growing brain. The suture will close and fuse around age 24.

At what age do the cranial sutures fuse?

Around two years of age, a child's skull bones begin to join together because the sutures become bone. When this occurs, the suture is said to “close.” In a baby with craniosynostosis, one or more of the sutures closes too early. This can limit or slow the growth of the baby's brain.

Do cranial sutures ossify?

Timing of cranial suture closure was one of the first techniques used to estimate the age of adult individuals. It is well known that the sutures between cranial bones ossify at different times during life.