[Dissertations 25 years after date 26. Maxillary sutural surfaces]

In the case of growing children with a deviation in the size or position of the upper jaw orthopaedic devices are often used to direct the growth at the level of the sutures. In the PhD thesis 'The postnatal development of the human maxillary sutural surfaces', published in 1985, the orientation and macroscopic morphology of the sutural surfaces of the maxilla in children's skulls were described. The existence of premaxillomaxillary and pterygomaxillary sutures could not be demonstrated. It was observed that the maxillary sutural surfaces were mainly sagittally oriented. Some sutural surfaces became increasingly rough with age, while the majority of the surfaces remained smooth. It was concluded that advice concerning the determination of the direction of orthopaedic forces in relation to the orientation of the sutures needed revision. Subsequent systematic reviews have reported that so far little is known about the long-term stability of orthopaedic effects in orthodontics.