Cbct evaluation on the effect of rapid maxillary expansion on the maxillary and mandibular bone volume

The aim of this study is to evaluate the volume of the maxillary and mandibular bones on the cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) data before and 6 months after the consolidation of rapid maxillary expansion. The material of this study has been consisted of CBCT images of the patients treated with the purpose of rapid maxillary expansion, obtained from the archive of Dicle University Faculty of Dentistry Department of Orthodontics (banded-RME-applied ( 3 males, 12 females), bonded-RME-applied (7 males, 8 females)). As for the control group, they were formed of the CBCT images of the patients orthodontically untreated, nor did they have maxillary transversal deficiency (7 males, 8 females). Volumetric measurements were performed through three-dimensional tomographic modeling program (15.0 Mimics®, Materialise, Belgium). In this program, in each tomographic cross-section, the image of the maxilla and mandible bone was separated from other adjacent tissues and modeled in three dimensions. Then the volume of digital information models obtained were statistically evaluated. In RME and each dependent control group, 'Paired Samples T test' was applied in order to compare changes occurring at different stages of the treatment. 'One-Way Anova' was applied so as to compare changes that occur during the treatment period in all groups. According to the results of this method the post-hoc multiple comparison test of 'Tukey HSD test' was applied for the parameters showing statistically significant differences between groups. When the data of rapid maxillary expansion obtained in two periods were compared, a significant increase was not observed statistically in the maxillary and mandibular bone volume (0,05