Abstract

Clear Aligners: Expanding the Toolbox for Treating Transverse Maxillary Deficiency

by Bruni Alessandro

Transverse Maxillary Deficiency (TMD) is one of the most common conditions among populations, diagnosed as isolated problems or as part of complex dentofacial deformities. The treatment of TMD includes several strategies depending on the diagnosis and clinical features, patients' expectations and compliance, and the stage of midpalatal suture maturation. The Rapid Palatal Expander (RPE) is the most widely used appliance to face TMD, despite a large number of available alternatives. Among them, Clear aligner Treatment (CAT) has steadily acquired increasing popularity in orthodontic clinical practice as well as an academic interest, considering its fairly recent history. The presentation aims to overview the current evidence on CAT for transverse maxillary deficiency in mixed dentition patients, highlighting this treatment modality's strengths and weaknesses. It also explores the mechanical behaviour of clear aligners and their clinical effectiveness, considering the potential mismatch between expected and achieved expansion. Finally, it also attempts to address questions that would inspire future investigations.

Learning Objectives

After this lecture, you will be able to get an up-to-date, evidence-based, overview of Transverse Maxillary Deficiency: definition, epidemiology, aetiology, clinical features, diagnosis and treatment modalities.
After this lecture, you will be able to assess the need for skeletal or dentoalveolar expansion and recognize what device is more suitable for any specific clinical scenario.
After this lecture, you will be able to detect the limits of the virtual treatment plan, considering the predictability ratio of expansion obtained with CAT.