I remember Charlie Tweed.

Abstract

hen I returned from service in the U.S. Army WDental Corps in World War II, I started a dental practice in Rockville Centre, New York, but soon developed an interest in treating the malocclusions of the children in that practice. I knew I would need to go back to school and learn to be an orthodontist. I was fortunate to be accepted at the orthodontic department of the Columbia University dental school for a 2-year course, and with help from the GI bill I spent the next 2 years as an orthodontic student by day and a general practice dentist by night. I received my certificate in orthodontics in January 1949 and started a career as an orthodontist. Soon enough, I realized I would also need to supplement what I had learned at Columbia, and I began taking postgraduate courses. During my early years in orthodontic practice, the specialty was embroiled in a disagreement over extraction vs nonextraction, which had been heightened by the work of Dr Charles Tweed of Tucson, Arizona. He famously extracted 4 premolars in 100 patients whose nonextraction treatments had failed, and then he retreated these patients at no additional fee. Even though the effort was not uniformly successful, it contributed to a wave of extractions that was as high as 80% in some orthodontic practices. Still, I was flying by the seat of my pants, and when I learned that Dr Tweed was offering a course, I decided to take it. I think the year was 1956. But you did not just sign up for the Tweed course. Applicants had to submit a setup on a typodont and a treated case for approval by a local Tweed follower. If your records were approved, you could then be accepted for the course. I spent many hours polishing the wax and the typodont itself, and I was accepted. I flew to Tucson in the middle of the night, and I recall landing on a wide open field. The terminal was just a shack. No sooner did we land than a cloud of dust appeared in the distance, and a Jeep roared up to