Skeletal and dentoalveolar effects of different types of microimplant-assisted rapid palatal expansion

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the following null hypothesis the skeletal and dentoalveolar expansion patterns in the coronal and axial planes are not different with two different types of microimplant-assisted rapid palatal expansion (MARPE) systems. Methods Pretreatment (T0) and post-MARPE (T1) cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of 32 patients (14 males and 18 females; mean age, 19.37) were analyzed. We compared two different MARPE systems. One MARPE system included the maxillary first premolars, maxillary first molars, and four microimplants as anchors (U46 type, n = 16), while the other included only the maxillary first molars and microimplants as anchors (U6 type, n = 16). Results In the molar region of the U6 and U46 groups, the transverse expansion at the midnasal, basal, alveolar, and dental levels was 2.64, 3.52, 4.46, and 6.32 mm and 2.17, 2.56, 2.73, and 5.71 mm, respectively. A significant difference was observed in the posterior alveolar-level expansion ( p = 0.036) and posterior basal-bone-level expansion ( p = 0.043) between the groups, with greater posterior skeletal and alveolar expansion in the U6 group. Conclusions Compared with the U46 group, the U6 group showed greater posterior expansion at the alveolar and basal-bone levels, with an almost parallel split. Both groups showed a pyramidal expansion pattern in the coronal view.

The short- and long-term changes of upper airway and alar in nongrowing patients treated with Mini-Implant Assisted Rapid Palatal Expansion (MARPE): a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Tang et al [ 36 ] placed the patient in the supine position when performing CBCT, Aneris, Kim and Yi et al [ 20 , 31 , 38 ] placed the patient in the upright position. There are studies reporting that the use of different appliance materials can affect the effectiveness of orthodontic treatment such as self-curing plastics or cast metals, molar anchorage [ 49 , 50 ].…”