The Effect Of Rapid Maxillary Expansion On The Airway Dimension In Skeletal Class II Treatment

Abstract

To examine the changes in pharyngeal airway dimension and hyoid bone position with the effect of rapid maxillary enlargement during the treatment of skeletal Class II malocclusion with functional appliances.Patients with skeletal Class II malocclusion were divided into two groups; Group 1 consisted of 25 patients (8 males, 17 females) with a mean age of 11.41±1.13 who treated with twin-block appliance with rapid maxillary expansion appliance and Group 2 who only received twin-block therapy consisted of 25 patients (12 males, 13 females) with a mean age of 11.92±0.65. In this study, 11 angular and 3 linear measurements were used for skeletal evaluation of maxillary and mandibular on cephalometric X-rays of initial and intermediate records of 50 patients and 13 linear measurements were performed for pharyngeal airway evaluation. Intra-group comparisons were analyzed using the paired sample t-tests. Inter-group comparisons were analyzed using the independent t-test.According to the intra-group t test results, in skeletal evaluation of the maxillary and mandibular, 8 angular and 2 linear measurements for group 1, 9 angular and 2 linear measurements for group 2, in pharyngeal evaluation all measurements of group 1 and 11 linear measurements for group 2 were significant differences (P<.05). According to the intergroup t test results, there were significant differences in skeletal assessment and pharyngeal airway evaluation (P<.05).A statistically significant difference was found in the upper and middle pharyngeal airway dimensions in the inter-group evaluation. While the contribution of rapid maxillary expansion to the increase of pharyngeal airway dimensions was shown, the effect of the functional appliances on this region is greater.