But there are so many case reports and reports from patients and studies. All you need to do is search this forum.DrJasonKTam wrote:The mid palatal suture is the line you feel running down the middle of your palate. This denotes the location of an opening between two bones and becomes fused during puberty. The goal of expansion is to move these two bones apart. After fusion, the upper jaws are not able to be separated from each other without surgery. As such, only dental tipping is possible.
Dental tipping in a buccal direction, as mentioned, is not true jaw expansion, but can be considered dental expansion. Keep in mind that the teeth can only be tipped out so far before the supporting structures, such as the gums and bone, are compromised. Long term stability is also of great concern.
This is as sure as night and day.
Here's an example of a study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3310 ... t=Abstract
And another:
http://www.angle.org/doi/pdf/10.1043/00 ... 2.0.CO%3B2
This study says:
Rapid maxillary expansion in adults flared the
molars buccally only 3 degrees per side. The mandibular plane and lower facial height were unchanged. The
adults achieved 18% of their transmolar expansion at the height of the palate and the remainder with buccal
displacement of the alveolus. /quote
18% is not that great, but the point is, bone expansion was achieved.
My suspicion, based on what I've read, is that the amount of tipping and the type of expansion (dental or skeletal) depends on what was used to achieve the expansion.
There is one thread where a person reported on using a kind of expander that fits against the roof of the mouth and, IIRC, they didn't need to turn any key. The fact that it fit against the roof ensured that there'd be no tipping.
The person said that they were told by the dr that expansion is achieved by growing new bone. The bone stretches out, holes appear, and new bone grows (I'm not 100% on the explanation, I've read so many stuff recently it's all jumbled up).
There are really so many reports from patients, and case reports from doctors and studies (and it's not folks who confuse it with tipping of teeth). You can just search this forum and find reports of faces getting wider and cheekbones more pronounced.
I think the reason some people write off adult non surgical expansion is that they see one that isn't done well and results in just tipping and they assume it's all just tipping.
Are you having surgery? If not, I wouldn't worry too much about "the gap" anyway -- there's little chance you'll have any major gap, especially in the front.
