Resumen de Maxillary expansion in the digital era: the benefits of a complete digital workflow
Cesare Luzi, Emese Szabò, Alberto T. Valentini, Katherina Schmidt, Paolo Carletti
Objective: The objective of the study was to assess whether a fully digital workflow for fabricating a completely customized rapid maxillary expander (RME) can be always applicable with benefits compared to a partially digital approach. Materials and Methods: Two similar patients, with maxillary transverse contraction and monolateral posterior crossbite were compared. Both were treated with customized RMEs fabricated by means of an appliance design software. The first patient underwent a partial digital while the latter a partial digital workflow. Results: Precision of the appliance fitting and clinical results was comparable in both patients. However, the complete digital workflow allowed to skip some time-consuming steps in the first part of the procedure. Conclusions: The complete digital workflows allow a clear benefit related to time saving and ease of communication with the dental laboratory. A state of the art dental technician, able to use CAD/CAM technologies, is essential to obtain the full benefits.
