Comment

I've just returned having presented the 7th ‘Art meets Science’ course together with Kevin O'Brien, to 80 enthusiastic Dentists and Orthodontists in Manchester. The course is always very well received, particularly the sections where Kevin dissects the Orthodontic literature in ‘real time’, skilfully separating the ‘wheat from the chaff’. Most of the delegates return home with an understanding of the current ‘state of the art’ workings of many of the currently used clinical techniques.

One area which caused great interest was the various and many discussions surrounding the ‘speeding up’ of orthodontic treatment. All attendees were interested to know the evidence to support the use of techniques such as: corticotomies, piezosurgeries, various light-emitting devices, intra-oral vibrators, as well as the magical brackets and mystical archwires that allowed the bone to develop both rapidly and copiously around the moving teeth, under their special forces. It will come as no great surprise to any of you, that the ‘hard evidence’ to support many of these approaches is sadly lacking.