Effects of rapid maxillary expansion on auditory thresholds and middle ear functioning.
Cassiele Fontoura Moraes, Erissandra Gomes, Rebeca Cardona Santa Helena and 1 others
PMID 39879422WHAT IT FOUND
In 18 children and adolescents with narrow upper jaws, a dental expander was followed by normal middle ear test patterns and no measured hearing gap by 6 months.
Without a control group, this cannot show the expander caused the change.
Key findings
01Before expansion, 61.11% had tympanometry suggesting middle ear impairment and 66.67% lacked acoustic reflexes in both ears.
02After expansion, all participants had type A tympanometry at 3 months and acoustic reflexes in both ears at 6 months.
03Air-bone gaps were present in 61.11% before expansion and absent in all participants at 3 and 6 months.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This was a single-arm trial with no control group, so the changes after expansion could be due to time, maturation, measurement, or other factors rather than the expander alone. The sample was small: 18 participants, and the paper says two were excluded for missing the 6-month visit while the tables are labelled n=18, so the analysed sample is unclear. The paper states RME is not indicated as a treatment for hearing loss, so these findings should not be read as evidence for treating hearing loss. No participant received speech-language-hearing therapy during data collection, and the outcomes were hearing and middle ear tests, not speech, language, swallowing, or communication function.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not report funding or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the post-expansion normal tympanometry and absent air-bone gaps as proof that RME treats hearing loss. This was a small uncontrolled single-arm trial, and the authors state RME is not indicated as a treatment for hearing loss.