Effect of Bone Borne Expansion and Tooth Borne Palatal Expansion on Airway Volume: A Review Article

Background and purpose: Transverse problems in the maxilla (high arched- narrow hard plates) can cause respiratory disorders. Palatal expansion can be helpful in this way. The present study aimed at evaluating the effect of bone borne expansion and tooth borne palatal expansion on airway volume. Materials and methods: A review study was performed by search in Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane using the following keywords: maxillary expansion, palatal expansion, miniscrew-assisted palatal expansion, tooth borne, bone borne, rapid palatal expansion, airway dimension, and Cone beam computed tomography. The search was limited to articles published in January 2011-April 2021. Results: In the initial search, 343 articles were found. After reviewing the titles and abstracts only 20 papers were found that studied the effect of bone and tooth borne palatal expansion on airway dimensions and met the inclusion criteria. The studies indicated that both bone expansion and tooth borne palatal expansion could considerably increase airway volumes. However, only bone borne palatal expansion enabled more predictable and greater skeletal expansion and less teeth response. Conclusion: Both bone and tooth borne palatal expansion are efficient in increasing the airway volume. Further randomized clinical trials with large sample size and matched control groups, longer follow-up periods and measuring respiration index such as apnea-hypopnea index are suggested.