Acrylic stent to aid placement of footplate of palatal distractor during surgically-assisted rapid palatal expansion

We describe a modification that ensures the correct placement of the footplate of a palatal distractor during surgically-assisted rapid palatal expansion (SARPE). The Synthes™ transpalatal distractor (DePuy Synthes, Oberdorf, Switzerland) is a modular system consisting of a central barrel and two footplates that are screwed into bone to produce a "bone-borne" distraction force.1 An advantage of the system is the ability to change the size of the central barrel (small: 16–24mm; medium: 20–36mm; large: 24–48mm) mid-way through treatment to increase the distance of distraction.

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