Considering the high prevalence, transverse control in adult patients presenting relatively narrow maxillary width is a challenging issue. This study compared the pattern of arch expansion induced by either miniscrew-assisted rapid palatal expander (MARPE) or continuous archwire engaged on self-ligating brackets. Age-matched adults groups(N=15 each) were treated with respective appliance. In both groups, all intercanine, interpremolar, and intermolar widths increased, and significantly greater change was noted in the intermolar region. Buccal tipping was minimal in both groups. Subsequent arch length increase, lingual tipping of incisors and distal tipping of molars were also found in both groups. According to the results, it can be concluded that the MARPE induced generally more arch expansion, particularly in the intermolar width, indicating that the adults showing buccal crossbite of the molars may have to undergo expansion via MARPE prior to arch alignment using continuous archwire.