A Comparative Evaluation of Transverse Nasomaxillary Dimensions – Clinical, Radiographic and CT Study

Rapid maxillary expansion (RME) is a method to expand the transverse dimension of nasomaxillary complex and various studies have reported the effects of RME using a variety of radiographic methods. In the present study, the effect of a hyrax splint appliance was studied on a 10 year old growing boy undergoing orthodontic treatment. The changes were evaluated on pre and post study models, maxillary occlusal radiographs, posterioanterior cephalogram and computed tomography scan (axial and coronal section).

The results demonstrated a clear appliance induced effect in the patient. The dentoalveolar and skeletal changes when studied and compared on study models, maxillary occlusal radiographs, posterioanterior cephalogram and computed tomography scan revealed that CT scan is the most reliable method to evaluate the changes as compared to conventional radiographs which showed more expansion values than the actual.