Is the corticotomy assisted orthodontic treatment efficient in the expansion of narrow arches in adult patients?

BACKGROUND: Corticotomy assisted orthodontic treatment (CAOT) is a technique which, performing surgical cuts on the cortical alveolar bone around the teeth, induces a faster rate of orthodontic tooth movement. The development CAOT offers solutions to overcome many of limitations in adult orthodontic treatment, such as risk of hyalinization, root resorption, periodontal problems, lack of bone growth and a long therapy time due to slower tooth movement compared to adolescents. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify if CAOT is also useful for expanding narrow arches in adult orthodontic patients.METHODS: An electronic research on PubMed until June 2020 was made with the combined search terms "corticotomy expansion," "corticotomy orthodontic expansion - and "corticotomy orthodontic."RESULTS: Six studies were included in this systematic review. The authors found discordant results in literature; however, it seems that CAOT can have better results than conventional expansion. but it cannot be considered as an alternative therapy for severe posterior cross-bite. CAOT have a greater predictability if done with bone grafting.CONCLUSIONS: The evidence of corticotomy as a help to palatal expansion in adult orthodontic treatment has not been well described in literature and only few published reports are available. Further testing in human beings are still necessary to confirm the validity of this technique.