Today, we mark the fifth anniversary of the Young Russian Orthodontists Manifesto. In this document my colleagues and I described the current state of affairs of the orthodontic specialty in Russia and across the post-Soviet world. We also proposed the ways of improvement. Our main goal was to integrate the grassroots orthodontic developments at home into the global orthodontic infrastructure. Our goals have never been met. 

As of today, the number of Russian orthodontists certified in the European Orthodontic Board is zero, the number of postgraduate programs which fit the guidelines of the World Federation of Orthodontists is zero, and the number of studies from the former Soviet Union published in the peer-reviewed orthodontic periodicals is also nil. 

It is a very saddening statistics.

However, not many seem to be worried. This, in my view, could be attributed to an alternative picture of orthodontic reality painted by the Soviet bureaucrats who run the education process and marketing experts who promote – rarely in an ethical and scientific way – the western orthodontic brands in the country. Their concerted efforts have led many to take seriously a freakish theatrical performance where the actors contest in gaining fake academic credentials and publishing nonsensical claims on social media. 

We are currently living in a dystopian orthodontic landscape and the global geopolitical events seem only to exacerbate the situation and make it even more grotesque. 

I ask myself what can I personally do against this assault on reality? Probably, keeping up with this blog is a little, yet most at-hand activity.