Abstract :
Objective: This systematic review aimed to evaluate the scientific evidence on effectiveness of maxillary arch expansion in the mixed dentition with clear aligners.Materials and Methods: Eight electronic databases were searched: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, Science direct, Google scholar, Scopus, and LILACS until June 2023. Randomized clinical trials, Prospective and retrospective studies on subjects requiring dentoalveolar expansion in mixed dentition phase, treated with clear aligners were included. After inclusion of studies, eligibility screening, data extraction and risk of bias assessment were performed and exploratory meta-analyses of the mean differences (MDs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) was conducted.Results: A total of seven articles were included: Four retrospective, two prospective and one randomized controlled trial. Four studies presented low risk of bias, two studies showed moderate risk of bias and the randomized controlled trial had some concerns. Results revealed that the maximum amount of arch expansion with clear aligners was observed at first deciduous intermolar region with mean expansion of 3.52 mm and least amount of expansion was observed at the deciduous inter-canine region with a mean expansion of 2.63mm.?Conclusions and Implications: The clear aligners were able to produce considerable arch expansion of 3-4 mm in the mixed dentition stage.
Keyword :
Arch expansion, Clear aligners, Mixed dentition, Transverse discrepancy, Dentoalveolar expansion