I have recently finished reading a wonderful book titled ‘The Golden Age of Orthodontics’ by a senior Californian orthodontist, Dr Norman Wahl. It was a true delight: honest, passionate and thorough analysis of the evaluation of orthodontic specialty by the person who himself participated in the process since the graduation in 1963.
The author has defined and described three main periods in the formation of the specialty:
• 1930-50 From the Depression to the Golden Age • 1950-70 The Golden Age • 1970-80s Decline
He has also illustrated the present situation with all of its disagreeable features: tremendous student loans, deficit in academic staff, the encroachment of teledentistry, etc.
The book teems with interesting historic facts and eloquent quotations to make you believe that not much has really changed:
“We are again just where we were 30 or more years ago. These men today merely ‘straighten teeth’.”
Weinberger B.W., AJO-DO, 1956
“One of the most perplexing problems is the continuous and explosive appearance of various course, short and long, giving the non-orthodontist training in orthodontics.”Hubert J. Bell, AAO president, 1974
As you could imagine, the book has just a few insights into orthodontics practicing outside of the US. However, being born, raised, and studied in the former Soviet Union I was constantly inadvertently comparing described landscape with the one that is familiar to me. Interestingly, I found some similarities.
I think the present situation in the former USSR is close to the US realities of 1920-1930s: most specialists are getting their education through the short-term courses, premolar extraction is practicing by a minority, and no rigid orthodontic infrastructure is in place.
As you might have guessed, I want to speculate if the golden decades are to come?
In my opinion, for the most part it is going to depend on the courage and entrepreneurial skills of the specialists. I believe we now have a new bright post-Soviet generation of young orthodontists. It is a rather small group of people, but their ability to practice without many resources is remarkable.
Other two vitally important factors are the willingness of the major international orthodontic organizations to support this new development and the willingness of the post-Soviet bureaucracy to let them do so.
If all three factors merge together, in the not-to-distant future we will have orthodontics flourishing across the previously unknown for the specialty part of the world. If not, the young generation of the post-Soviet orthodontists is likely to scatter across more economically appealing and orthodontically-advanced countries…
Unfortunately, I do not have a crystal ball to predict the future. Do you?
Orthodontic Grammar 
[…] the day-to-day trenches of big corporate practices? I can’t help citing here a few passages from a wonderful book by Dr. Norman Wahl, The Golden Age of Orthodontics. Here are the comments of different orthodontists who have worked under the so-called dental […]
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