Short-term and long-term stability of surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion revisited

Introduction: The purpose of this article is to present further longitudinal data for short-term and long-term stability, following up our previous article in the surgery literature with a larger sample and 2 years of stability data. Methods: Data from 38 patients enrolled in this prospective study were collected before treatment, at maximum expansion, at removal of the expander 6 months later, before any second surgical phase, at the end of orthodontic treatment, and at the 2-year follow-up, by using posteroanterior cephalograms and dental casts. Results: With surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion (SARPE), the mean maximum expansion at the first molar was 7.60 +/- 1.57 mm, and the mean relapse was 1.83 +/- 1.83 mm (24%). Modest relapse after completion of treatment was not statistically significant for all teeth except for the maxillary first molar (0.99 +/- 1.1 mm). A significant relationship (P < 0.0001) was observed between the amount of relapse after SARPE and the post-treatment observation. At maximum, a skeletal expansion of 3.58 +/- 1.63 mm was obtained, and this was stable. Conclusions: Skeletal changes with SARPE were modest but stable. Relapse in dental expansion was almost totally attributed to lingual movement of the posterior teeth; 64% of the patients had more than 2 mm of dental changes. Phase 2 surgery did not affect dental relapse. (Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2011;139:815-22)