Maxillary expansion in nongrowing patients. Conventional, surgical, or miniscrew-assisted, an update

Abstract

Maxillary transverse deficiency can occur in various clinical dentoskeletal deformities and include unilateral or bilateral posterior crossbite, narrow, tapering, or high palatal arch.

The development of temporary anchorage devices led to a new generation of tooth-bone-borne expansion appliance using two or four screws to apply the mechanical forces to the bone and reduce the stress to the anchored teeth. The aim of these new devices is to reduce the adverse dentoalveolar effect and achieve more skeletal expansion than conventional tooth-borne rapid palatal expansion.

This article reviews the age limitation and complication and soft tissue change of nonsurgical maxillary expansion. We discuss the approach of surgical maxillary expansion with maxillary skeletal expander device. The clinical case will show the benefit of nonsurgical and surgical tooth-bone-borne rapid palatal expansion.