What is rapid maxillary expansion?

As I understand it this relatively recent development involves a combination of flap surgery and cortical cuts in the alveolus housing anterior teeth. When the flap is reflected not only is the cortical bone "scribed" to allow more freedom for orthodontic expansion, and bone grafting is added as well. The purpose of this surgery is to both make orthodontic expansion of the maxilla  more feasible and to speed up the entire orthodontic process. I watched a lot of well documented case presented at a Spear Leadership summit last year and it seems like an intriguing procedure, but it certainly is somewhat invasive than nonsurgical orthodontics, since it involves a well elevated flap surgery, multiple cuts to the bones cortex and bone grafting as well. The proponents of this procedure claim it allows relatively rapid movements of teeth into positions that were previously only possible using even more invasive orthagnathic surgical procedures.

Since I saw these presentations at Spear, I have some interest in seeing first hand the results of these procedures and would like to see some peer review studies dealing with both their safety and efficacy. I personally am not familiar with an Orthodontist in NYC routinely utilizing rapid maxillary expansion.

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2017/11/what-is-rapid-maxillary-expansion.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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