Comparison of treatment outcomes with banded and bonded RPE appliances

The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare the treatment outcom es with a banded (n = 38) versus a bonded (n = 55) rapid palatal expansion appliance followed by edgewise orthodontics. Both lateral cephalometric rad iographs and orthodontic study casts were evaluated at pretreatment and pos ttreatment time periods. Overall, the banded rapid palatal expansion group had more vertical change than the bonded group. However, most of these chan ges were less than 1 degrees or 1 mm and may be considered clinically insig nificant. This study could not establish superiority of one type of rapid p alatal expansion technique over another.