Evaluation of Cervical Posture Following Rapid Maxillary Expansion: A Review of Literature

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to elucidate the state of the art about how rapid maxillary expansion (RME) produces changes in natural head position (NHP) in terms of cephalometric angles or inclinometer data during the growth period, according to the available literature. METHODS: Electronic search was done from January 2002 to June 2012 on PubMed, Cochrane and Scopus databases; in addition manual search was conducted as well. According to keywords, eleven papers were eligible for our purpose, but definitely six papers were selected in agreement with the inclusion/exclusion criteria. CONCLUSIONS: The current literature suggests that the potential relationship between RME and NHP is still unclear. In fact, although the change in the position of the head after the rapid palatal expansion is evident clinically, current orthodontic literature does not provide conclusive evidence about the nature of this relationship