Interceptive approach of future palatally displaced canines, by an early extraction of the deciduous canines.

Very interesting and clinically significant article at the latest issue of the Angle Orthodontist:

Conclusion:
"The extraction of the deciduous canine is an effective measure in PDC cases, but it must be done in younger patients in combination with early diagnosis, at the age of 10–11 years. Maintenance of the perimeter of the upper arch is an important step during the observation period, and a palatal arch as a space-holding device is recommended"

I would add that removable retention with a plate (Hawlley, Begg retainer, Jensen plate etc), or let's say an MRC trainer could also do the trick! Other than that please take the time to read this article over the Angle's website:

LINK HERE

Kind regards,

D.G.

Introducing the New AJO-DO's iPad Application.

The new application for tablets is out from the American Journal of Orthodontics and Orofacial Orthopedics.

Access all new and old issues and articles, along with integration with iBooks, dropbox and many more.

Worth downloading if you own a tablet:

- iTunes link
- Alternative from Elsevier Advanced Health application

D.G.

Happy new year 2014!

Wishing you all a happy new year, 2014.

Productive, healthy and peaceful!

D.G.

Clinical Key, Search Engine by Elsevier.

I admit that I did not know of it's existence till now.

Clinical key is a specialised search engine for clinicians in the medical field.

Try it out it is quite good!

https://www.clinicalkey.com

D.G.

7-9 February 2014, Winter Conference of the AAO, Las Vegas.

This year's Winter Conference of the AAO, is about Adult Treatment, and it sets out to bring closer Orthodontists and Restorative dentists, in favor of patients.

Adult patients interdisciplinary approach was late AJODO editor's Dr Vince Kokich favorite topic.

A topic he contributed to vigorously throughout his professional career and as such this meeting will be dedicated to him.

Ravindra Nanda and Dirk Weinchmann are just a few of the many names lecturing this year.

This is the link for downloading the program pdf

The online registration is open

D.G.

Mini-screws is just a tool among others!

With Dr. Kokich at the EOS 2012

Driven from the recent editorial article of Dr. Kokich at the AJODO, I would like to emphasize what this article was all about.


TADs have been around for some time now in the orthodontic field, and have changed the approach we follow at a number of cases.

• This is all wonderful but we should also remember that mini-screws are just a tool among others. 
• What is really important is correct diagnosis, individualized treatment planning and well designed biomechanics applied to the right patient.

PURE intrusion of anterior and/or posterior teeth for example, is a tooth movement that can be achieved ONLY when the reacting force is not applied to the dentition. A clean way of doing that is bone anchorage. 

• However we don't want to intrude the anterior too much especially when treating adolescence, where a gummy smile of 4mm IS very normal for their age!
• Let alone the issue of muscle adaptation when intruding posterior teeth and altering the vertical height of open bite patients...

It feels good to read what I was taught in Aarhus, been repeated by someone like Dr. Kokich and at the AJODO, because unfortunately when you say these things to a group of fellow orthodontists, people tend to look at you a bit strange. Marketing you see...

Thank you ;)

p.s. Here you can find the pdf of the AJODO Editorial

D.G.

Clustering In Orthodontic Trials

Long time no see! I was very much pre-occupied with the change of my professional career. I have moved back to Crete and set up my private office which is a few months now ready and working (http://www.orthocorner.com). The web site is mainly in Greek for now as I am creating it myself both design and content so it takes time.

Now to our subject, clustering in orthodontic trials:

• First of all clustering is mainly when there are several measurements are taken from the same individual, e.g. measuring inclination of different teeth at the same jaw...
• The issue here is that those measurements are not independent and "might" have similarities due to the fact that it is the same subject with individual factors that apply to all those teeth (of the above example).
• As such, this has to be taken to account when calculating the sample size for example, and more-over in deciding what kind of statistical analysis of the data gathered, will be performed to reach safer and more useful conclusions.

I will not get into any further detail in order not to bore you, but whoever is interested in reading a bit more about this very interesting and so widely talked about subject there are two articles at the online early of the European Journal of Orthodontics:

• Why does clustering matter in orthodontic trials? Authors: Jayne E. Harrison and Girvan Burnside
• Does published orthodontic research account for clustering effects during statistical data analysis?, Authors: Despina Koletsi, Nikolaos Pandis, Argy Polychronopoulou and Theodore Eliades

p.s. Do not forget the EOS this June at beautiful Santiago de Compostela, Spain

D.G.

Academic Orthodontic Opportunities, USA

Academic positions listing in the US, for those interested...

Taken from the Angle Orthodontist, you can download the PDF here

DG

JCO, Miniscrew Loosening, Prof B.Melsen

Prof. B. Melsen talks in simple words  about miniscrews and the reasons behind failure.
First of all the failure of miniscrews can be seen immediately (in the first couple of weeks) or later.


A summary of some of the points given in this article:


Early Failure:

• Insufficient primary stability (wrong site selection, due to insufficient bone quality, or quantity)
• Iatrogenic failures (jiggling during the insertion, over-screwing)
• Magnitude and direction of the force loading (high magnitude of force, it is advised to start with around 50cN and increase the force gradually, also unscrewing moments should be avoided)

Later Failure:

• Change of the local environment (inflammation due to root proximity, or change of the local bone turn over, e.g. in relation to resorption of the root of a deciduous tooth)
• Systemic factors (such as smoking, alcoholism, and medication that influences bone turnover have been proven risk factors for implant failure in general)

In any case when a miniscrew fails, the new insertion site has to further away from the old one, at least twice the diameter of the screw. In addition choosing to change the site and use the screw with an indirect loading instead of direct could be advised if a screw fails more than once at the same patient.

This is the link of Prof B. Melsen's article at the current issue of the JCO.


References:
Clinical Guide
Clinical Applications

D.G.

Hebrew University-Hadassah Orthodontic Program

For those interested, please take advantage of the time left for submitting applications for the IPOP (International Postgraduate Orthodontic Program) in Hadassah School of Dental Medicine in Israel. The deadline is the 31st of August 2011.

Being a Postgraduate Student in Orthodontics at TAU (Tel Aviv University) I am aware of the high level of education offered in Israel. For this reason, and as Ambassador of EPSOS (European Postgraduate Students Orthodontic Society) for ISRAEL, I advice all the European Dental Students interested in Orthodontics to apply to this 3 year Orthodontic Residency Program in Hadassah School of Dental Medicine in Jerusalem.

Nuno Sousa Dias

Upper bonded retainer failures, AngO ahead of print

The Angle Orthodontist, at it's online ahead of print, has published an interesting retrospective study of Dr Sabine Ruf of Giessen University, Germany.

466 consecutive upper bonded retainers were checked and surprisingly a 58.2% of the patients experienced failures of their retainer.

Click to enlarge

Now that's plain a lot. Looking at the graph above:

• The retainers that fail at the first 6 months are due to detachments. The incidents of detachment reduce over-time.
• The complete loss of the retainer has more or less the same probability of happening over-time.
• Lastly the fracture of the retainer, as expected is something that happens more often after a year or two.

Abstract link

D.G.

Force extension relaxation of medium force orthodontic latex elastics, AngO June 2011, early access

The Angle Orthodontist of June 2011, has a very interesting article concerning the forces of latex elastics, over time.
The elastics is one of the few tools so widely used and so little studied in orthodontics.

The graph on the left shows for three commercial latex elastics, that for the first 3 hours there is a decrease of force.
This force increases for the next 3-6 hours and decreases again up to 12 hours of stretching.

Birte Melsen: How has the spectrum of orthodontics changed over the past decades?

The Journal of Orthodontics of this month has invited Prof. DrOdont, B.Melsen from the university of Aarhus Denmark, to write an article about orthodontics today.


This article is in a form of a lecture. Dr. Melsen talks about almost every aspect of orthodontics today.


From "fast food orthodontics", self-ligating, "intelligent wires and brackets", "no bending orthodontics" to individualized treatments for adults with periodontal and degenerative diseases. TADs and digital orthodontics (digital casts, computerized treatment planing) are a field of interest for the future, and push the limits of orthodontics according to Prof Melsen.


Along the caustic comments about the industry, the marketing of new wires and brackets, it is reminded to everyone, that orthodontics is all about treatment planning and goals orientation. There is no cook book in orthodontics, and this article is certainly worth of your time.

Growth Charts, 5-20 Years of Age

Another short post of an iPhone, iPad app. Growth charts of an unlimited number of patients, height, weight, BMI. Those charts can be valuable for the orthodontist to analyze the growth before and during dentofacial orthopedic treatments. 
The application uses the database of the World Health Organization (WHO) for 5-19 years of age, with separate charts as well of 5-10, 10-15 and 15-19 years for further analysis.


A screenshot (height for age 5-10):

iTunes link

D.G.

p.s. We have 3 promotional codes for this app. For those interested post a comment below.

Dental Prescriber, iPhone app

Just a short post for an interesting application I found at the app store for iPhone. It is a prescriber application tailored to the needs of the general dentist.


A screenshot:

iTunes Link

D.G.

OrthoVoice 2011

The OrthoVoice meeting, as shown above, happens this year October 20-22 at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The meeting has some interesting keynotes starting Dr William Profit, Dr. M.Apern, Dr. R.Scholz and many more. Here's a link of the schedule.


For those interested for a clinical and practice management meeting, mark your calendar.

D.G.

Re-evaluation of cervical vertebral maturation and its relation to mandibular growth, AJO-DO

The cervical vertebral maturation stages were introduced by Dr. Baccetti as 5 stages initially, and 6 stages in 2005.


This relates the mandibular growth velocity with  6 distinguished stages of cervical vertebral maturation.


These are the stages from the article of Baccetti Sept 2005, Sem Orth:

 CS1:Mandibular peak will start in 2 years

CS2:Mandibular peak will start in 1 year

CS3:Mandibular peak will happen during that year

CS4:Mandibular peak has started 1-2 years ago

CS5:Mandibular peak has finished 1 year ago

CS6:Mandibular peak has finished 2 years ago

iPhone, iPad Anterior Maxillary Length/Width Calculator

A short post of an app I found at the Apple store, that calculates the width/length ratio of a patient's central and lateral maxillary incisors. Nothing fancy and nothing innovating here. However for someone interested in a tool like that you might as well have it.

An iPhone screen-shot of the app:

the app is 4$ and here's the iTunes link

D.G.

Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics, iPad Version

Formerly called Revista Dental Press de Ortodontia e Ortopedia Facial, and after 14 years of life, it begun publishing an english version as well. That was at the start of 2010.


The brazilian journal now called Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics has launched an iPad app which is I believe the first of its kind for known orthodontic journals.


The first 6 issues will be free, and the app itself is free as well. I imagine that the in app subscriptions system will be activated after those 6 free issues, but nothing further is mentioned at this time.


Here's a screenshot from the app:

The iTune link

and the journal's website link : http://www.scielo.br/

The current issue consists of articles heavily focused at CBCT and 3D data oriented research material. Also an interesting interview of Dr.Cevidanes is included.

D.G.

New Orthodontic Journal

Since last week it is possible to purchase online the new Orthodontic Journal named "The Art and Practice of Dentofacial Enhancement".

http://www.quintpub.com/journals/wjo/journal_contents.php?journal_name=WJO&current=1

The former World Journal of Orthodontics appears with a completely new structure.

The editor-in-chief, Dr. Rafi Romano, together with his associate editor, Dr. Marc Ackerman, organized the Journal in 10 categories: