Miniscrew-Assisted Palatal Expansion and Airway Volume Changes; A Systematic Review

Background and Objective: Palatal expansion can be done with tooth-borne and bone-borne appliances; Bone maturity is one of the factors required placing a mini-screw in the palate for expansion. Expansion with bone-based appliance also has two dental and skeletal responses; Part of the skeletal response can be to increase the size of the airway. The present study evaluates the effect of Miniscrew-assisted palatal expansion on airway volume. Methods: Search was conducted for articles published between January 2010 to January 2021 in PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and Cochrane using the following inclusion criteria: 1) patients whose treatment with Miniscrew-assisted palatal expansion and who with transverse discrepancy 2) all languages, 3) Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) or non-randomized clinical trials (Non-RCTs) and retrospective studies were considered. Results: Of the 123 studies on miniscrew-assisted palatal expansion, only 7 studies clinically evaluated the effect of miniscrew-assisted palatal expansion on airway dimensions. The results of studies show that the miniscrew-assisted palatal expansion increasing airway dimensions; so that, increased nasal cavity volume and nasopharyngeal volume have been observed following this treatment. However, studies have shown that this approch does not effect on oropharyngeal, palatopharyngeal, glossopharyngeal and posterior areas. Conclusion: The results of the study demonstrated that Miniscrew-assisted palatal expansion is an effective and efficient treatment in increasing airway dimensions via its increasing nasal cavity and nasopharynx volume.