Orthodontics: A Dying Specialty or Dentistry’s Answer to Solving Many Health Problems?

Abstract

When I first began my orthodontic practice some 38 years ago, I thought of myself as a doctor who knew how to straighten teeth. I never imagined that I would influence the health of my patients far beyond giving them a good, functional bite to help them better digest their food. In my early years of practice, several of the patients I had previously treated came back to my office with clicking jaws and headaches. The limited training I had received during dental school and my orthodontic specialty program left me with no idea of how this TMJ dysfunction happened or what I could do for these people. My passion was ignited to find out answers and it drove me into much needed Continuing Education. I completed over 2000 CE hours in the next several years. I studied not only TMD, but also Dentofacial orthopedics, airway dysfunction and even spinal misalignment. I kept finding connections between many seemingly disparate parts of the body. I began to see that what I did with my patients’ orthodontic treatment could have an effect on their body that went well beyond their mouth. During these CE ventures I was continually surprised that I was virtually the only orthodontist present. In one such recent event I brought a fellow orthodontist to a sleep apnea lecture. The instructor thought it so unusual to see a couple of orthodontists at his lecture; he had us stand to be recognized. The response was thunderous applause by the 200+ dentists in the room. It seems that many of my orthodontic comrades shy away from CE courses given by a ‘non-specialist’. They think, incorrectly so, that there is nothing to be learned from a general dentist. After all, a specialist has two or more years of formal education to be able to be called a specialist, so they must know more! This is a very big mistake many specialists make, as many generalists have a much more complete view of their patients. They have seen the impact of the specialist’s treatment over the lifetime of the patient, not always with positive results. A case in point is the following: The orthodontic specialist sees the patient over the treatment course of a few years and typically does not follow the patient past the teen years. They don’t see the problems of dental relapse that occur years later. More critical is that they don’t see the TMJ dysfunction that could have happened as a result of their treatment. Even the aging Obstructive Sleep Apnea patient, or a person’s poor spinal alignment may never be connected to previous orthodontic treatment. The family dentist, many times following the patient for the rest of their life, however, is privy to all the aftermaths of short sighted treatment, whether it is from a specialist or another