Bollard Miniplates Showed 96.5% Success Across 1,196 Placements Over 4.2 Years

Edited by Dentaltown staff

Bollard-modified miniplates used to anchor maxillary protraction in growing patients achieved a 96.5% overall success rate across nearly 1,200 placements, according to a retrospective cohort study published Aug. 7 in the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.

The study covered 299 growing patients with maxillary hypoplasia and Class III malocclusion who received Bollard-modified miniplates for bone-anchored maxillary protraction between January 2007 and December 2019. A total of 1,196 miniplates were placed. Mean follow-up ran 4.2 years.

During orthodontic loading, 50 miniplates, or 4.2%, developed mobility or inflammation. After conservative management, 18 regained stability, 24 were removed and successfully replaced, and eight were removed and not replaced.

Location mattered. Complications occurred significantly more often in the maxilla than the mandible, at an odds ratio of 3.09 with a 95% confidence interval of 1.70 to 5.61 and P less than .001.

So did age. Younger age at surgery was independently associated with a higher likelihood of complications, at an odds ratio of 0.70, of miniplate removal, at 0.68, and of replacement, at 0.62. Patient sex was not significantly associated with any of these outcomes.

The authors concluded that Bollard-modified miniplate anchorage shows high long-term success and low complication rates in growing patients, and that early treatment of mobility or inflammation helped preserve stability.

Lieselotte De Bruyn, Veronica Scocca, Araceli Diez-Fraile, and Gwen R.J. Swennen conducted the study, which was approved by the ethics committee at AZ Sint-Jan Brugge in Belgium and received no specific funding.

The design carries a meaningful limitation beyond its retrospective nature: every one of the 1,196 miniplates was placed by a single surgeon at one institution. Success rates that depend heavily on surgical technique and case selection may not transfer directly to other operators or settings.

Sources:
American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, “Success rate and complications of Bollard-modified miniplates for bone-anchored maxillary protraction in growing patients: A single-surgeon retrospective cohort study,” published online Aug. 7, 2026: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889540626003483
DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2026.06.017