Effect of orthodontic maxillary posterior en masse intrusion anchored with miniplates on maxillary sinuses volume. Retrospective CBCT study

To evaluate, by means of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), the volume change of maxillary sinuses in patients that underwent orthodontic maxillary posterior en masse intrusion anchored with miniplates. The sample consisted of pretreatment (T1) and posttreatment (T2) CBCT scans obtained from 14 patients (4 male and 10 female), with a mean age of 32.4 years, that underwent orthodontic maxillary posterior en masse intrusion anchored with miniplates in the zygomatic crest. The mean treatment duration was 20 months and the mean intrusion movement was 2.4 mm. Maxillary sinus volume was measured by means of the software ITK SNAP (version 3.8.0) in T1 and T2 CBCT scans. The changes in sinuses volume were calculated by T1-T2 values. Data were analyzed statistically with Wilcoxon test at 5% of level of significance and the method error was analyzed with Wilcoxon test, intraclass correlation and Dahlberg's formula. The mean difference (T1-T2) was -242.85 mm³ (p = 0.396) for the right sinus and -32.5 mm³ (p = 0.875) for the left sinus. A slight increase in the volume of the sinuses was shown although these results were not statistically significant. The orthodontic maxillary posterior en masse intrusion anchored with miniplates did not influence significantly the maxillary sinus volume.