Comparison of patients with different cervical spine bone ages before and after arch expansion treatment based on cone-beam computed tomography

Y.-N. Chen, X.-W. Yang, W.-Y. Zheng

School of Stomatology, Bengbu Medical University, Bengbu, China. zhengwy8986@163.com

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• Dentistry
• Orthopedics
• Surgery

OBJECTIVE: The changes of maxillary basal arch width, molar angle, palatal suture width and nasal cavity width were analyzed in patients with different cervical bone ages before and after maxillary rapid arch expansion treatment, providing more reference for orthodontic design and treatment in the future.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 45 patients with maxillary lateral, insufficient development that underwent arch expansion treatment in Jiaxing Second Hospital between February 2021 and February 2022 were selected for the study. Patients were retrospectively grouped based on the cervical vertebra bone age, and divided into the pre-growth (15 cases), mid-growth (15 cases) and post-growth groups (15 cases). All patients had oral cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and lateral cranial radiographs taken before and after the treatment. Maxillary basal arch width, palatal suture width, nasal cavity width and molar angle were measured and analyzed using paired samples t-test, ANOVA and least significant difference test (LSD-T).

RESULTS: The maxillary basal arch width, palatal suture width, nasal cavity width and molar angle in the three groups were significantly changed after arch expansion treatment (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in all measurement indexes between patients in the pre-growth and the mid-growth groups (p>0.05), but there was statistically significant difference between patients in the pre-growth and the late-growth groups (p<0.05). There were statistically significant differences in all measurement indexes between the middle-growth and the late-growth group (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Rapid expansion of arch can be used to enlarge the width of palatal suture, maxillary basal arch, and nasal cavity in adolescent patients of different bone ages. With the increase of cervical bone age, the bony effect of expansion of arch gradually decreases, while the dental effect increases. Appropriate overcorrection should be made during arch expansion in late growth and excessive tooth tilt should be avoided to conceal bony width irregularities.

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