Recent Methods Used for Analysis of Midpalatal Suture Closure Before Maxillary Expansion in Humans: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The evaluation of the maturation of the midpalatal suture is highly important before making the clinical decision on whether to correct a transverse discrepancy in a conventional or surgical way. For this purpose, there are methods such as hand and wrist analysis, evaluation of maturation of the cervical vertebrae, and evaluation by means of occlusal radiographs. The main objective of this systematic review is to identify in the current literature the use of new methods and technologies to evaluate the maturation of the midpalatal suture before performing maxillary expansion. A bibliographic search was carried out using PubMed, Cochrane Library, SciELO, LILACS, Web of Science and Scopus using the terms midpalatal suture, cranial sutures, palate, maturation, interdigitation, ossification, maxillary expansion, evaluatio n, assessment and assess. The 119 articles were obtained, of which only 7 meet the selection criteria, which describe qualitative, quantitative and semiquantitative evaluation methods. During the last few years, due to advances in technology and science, various promising methods and techniques have been proposed for the evaluation of median palatal suture maturation. The quality of the available evidence is not enough to support the use of any one of these methods on their own. We recommend that clinicians use multiple diagnostic methods for an objective assessment of the maturation of the midpalatal suture, to guide them in their clinical decisions.