Objective: To evaluate the stability of surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion (SARME) and orthopedic maxillary expansion (OME) after 3 years of follow-up, and compare these changes with a control group.
Materials and methods: The subjects of the study were divided into three groups. Group 1 was composed of 10 patients (6 males, 4 females) with a mean age of 15.51 years (range: 13.33-17.58 years) and treated with OME, Group 2 comprised 10 patients (7 males, 3 females) with a mean age of 19.01 years (range: 16.25-25.58 years) and treated with SARME. Group 3 was the control group, consisting of 10 untreated, skeletal Class 1 subjects (6 males, 4 females) with a mean age of 15.27 years (range: 13.42-17.00 years) and matched to the OME group for sex and age. Lateral cephalometric and posteroantererior films were taken before expansion (T1), postexpansion (T2), and 3 years after the retention period (T3).
Results: After OME and SARME, significant increases were observed for both dental and skeletal transverse widths (P < .01). After 3 years of follow-up, maxillary basal width decreased 1.35 +/- 0.44 mm in the SARME group and 1.19 +/- 0.41 mm in the OME group, while upper molar width decreased 2.23 +/- 1.24 mm in the SARME group and 2.79 +/- 1.01 mm in the OME group.
Conclusions: Both the OME and SARME procedures remained stable after 3 years of follow-up with some amount of postretention relapse, compared with the control group.