AIM: to evaluate the possibility of rapid maxillary expansion in patients who have reached the decisive event of facial growth ending (total fusion of the radius). METHODS: the study was held using esqueletal maturation data from hand and wrist x-ray plotted in a puberal growth spurt graph from nineteen patients of both genders at ages ranging from ten years and three months to twenty-eight years and four months surveilled by specific clinical and radiographic analysis before and after the rapid maxillary expansion procedure. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: it could be concluded that it was not possible to establish a successful correlation between total fusion of radius with rapid maxillary expansion.
Rapid maxillary expansion; Hand and wrist x-ray; Skeletal age; Maxilary expansion
