Introduction: A systematic literature review was conducted to find out if bone-borne maxillary expansion with corticotomies is an effective and secure orthodontic/orthopaedic treatment modality, eliminating orthodontic and periodontal side effects of tooth-borne maxillary expansion with corticotomies.
Material and methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCT), controlled clinical trials (CCT) and case series with a sample size >or=5 were electronically searched in PubMED, MEDLINE, EMBASE Excerpta Medica, CINAHL, Biological Abstracts and CENTRAL till June 2008. Data were extracted by 2 observers.
Results: Ten studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria, of which 9 were prospective and 1 was a retrospective case series.
Conclusion: No RCT's or CCT's were published on bone-borne surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion (SARME). For expected advantages compared to tooth-borne SARME, only weak evidence was found for less buccal tipping of the teeth used as anchor teeth in tooth-borne expansion. The heterogeneity of the retrieved publications and the wide variety of outcome variables posed serious restrictions on the review of the literature in a quantitative systematic manner. There is a need for well designed clinical trials research on the effects of tooth-borne and bone-borne SARME.