Transversal Outcomes and Posterior Palatal Suture Ossification Following Maxillary Transversal Expansion with Micro-Screws: A Systematic Review

Maxillary transverse deficiency is caused by a lack of growth that can impact tooth position, generating a unilateral or bilateral crossbite. One treatment option is Rapid Palatal Expansion Assisted by Microscrews or Microimplants (MARPE), which has a lower impact on patients because it does not require surgery. The objective of this study is to de- termine the time and degree of repair of the palatal suture after MARPE expansion, to install rigid arches and continue with orthodontic treatment. A systematic search was conducted in the PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Lilacs databases from January 2014 to March 2024 of publications in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Prospective and retrospective studies were considered. Risk of bias assessment was performed using the ROBINS-I tool. 982 articles were identified. 535 duplicates were removed, 447 articles were selected for title and abstract review, leaving only 17 articles for full-text review. 12 articles were excluded due to having a sample size of less than 20 subjects and a follow-up period of less than 6 months, leaving a total of 5 articles for analysis. These 5 articles underwent risk of bias assessment, two studies were classified as high risk, one study presented a moderate risk, and two studies had a low risk of bias. The five studies obtained high success rates for the expansion outcomes. On the other hand, the containment times of the selected studies ranged from 6 months, and most of them considered this time sufficient. KEY WORDS: Palatine suture, maxilar expansion, microscrews, MARPE.

RAVELO, V.; NAVARRETE, A.; MUÑOZ, G.; OLATE, S.Transversal outcomes and posterior palatal suture ossification following maxillary transversal expansion with micro-screws: A Systematic Review. Int. J. Odontostomat., 19(3):195-203, 2025.