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College of Dentistry

SUBMITTED BY: RANTE, JULIUS E

 HISTORY OF ORTHODONTICS

Ancient Orthodontics
Archaeologists have found crooked teeth in human remains dating back 50,000 years, according to
Norman Wahl in the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.
Nowadays, orthodontists use braces to correct misaligned teeth, and something very similar has
been found in Egyptian mummies. Many of the mummies had crude metal bands around their teeth,
and archaeologists believed catgut may have been tied to these bands to provide pressure to move
the teeth.
The Ancient Greeks, the Etruscans and the Romans also practiced orthodontia. David Evans, DDS
describes a gold band that was used on Etruscan women to preserve the position of the teeth after
death, and the Ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, wrote the first known description of tooth
irregularities around 400 B.C. A Roman writer named Celsus, 400 years later, recommended
bringing newly emerging teeth into their proper position by regularly pushing them with your
fingers. To correct elongated teeth, another Roman named Pliny the Elder, who lived from 23 to 79
A.D., advised filing them to size.
17th and 18th Centuries
Dental Impressions began around the beginning of the 17th century with Matthaeus Gottfried
Purmann, who reported using wax to take impressions. Then in 1756, Phillip Pfaff used plaster of
Paris.
Ultimately, progress in orthodontics stalled after ancient times until the 18th century, which saw a
surge in development. Pierre Fauchard, born in 1728, is considered the Father of Dentistry, having
invented an appliance called bandeau. This horseshoe-shaped strip of metal contained regularly
spaced holes that fit around the teeth to correct their alignment. Fauchard would also operate on
patients with a set of forceps called a pelican, forcibly realigning teeth and tying them to the
neighboring teeth to hold them in place while they healed.
Then, Christophe-Franois Delabarre (1787-1862) tried separating overcrowded teeth by inserting
swelling threads or wooden wedges between each space.

Orthodontics in the United States

Significant contributions to the practice of orthodontics in the United States began in the 19th
century, according to Wahl. In 1822, J.S. Gunnell invented the occipital anchorage, a form of
headgear that fastens to the jaw from the outside of the mouth to exert gentle pressure on the teeth.
Then in 1840, Chapin A. Harris published the first classic book on dentistry, "The Dental Art,"
outlining practices such as soldering knobs on bands to assist with tooth rotation, and applying gold
caps to molars to open the dental bite. When Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber in 1839,
orthodontists realized the new material's potential. In 1846, E.G. Tucker became the first American
dentist to use rubber in orthodontic appliances.

Entering the 20th Century

No history of orthodontics is complete without a mention of Edward Hartley Angle, considered the
Father of Modern Orthodontics. A man with a range of achievements listed in the Journal of
Advanced Oral Research, he identified the true properties of a malocclusion, or misalignment, and
addressed them with an increasingly effective set of orthodontic appliances beginning in 1880.

Advances in the 1970s

Prior to the 1970s, orthodontists had anchored brackets to teeth by winding wires around each tooth.
But according to Dr. Evans, the invention of dental adhesives meant that they could instead stick
the brackets to teeth surfaces. Meanwhile, stainless steel replaced gold and silver as the most
popular choice for wires due to its manipulability, reducing braces costs significantly. Lingual
braces, which run along teeth's inside surfaces, were also first introduced in the 1970s to address the
aesthetic concerns we still have today.

FATHER OF ORTHODONTICS

Norman W. Kingsley
-(October 26, 1829 February 20, 1913) was a dentist and an artist in 19th Century. He was a
major contributor in the early development of orthodontic treatments and cleft palate therapy. He
designed fixed and removable inclined planes to correct Angle Class II malocclusions. He also
designed the first soft-rubber palatal obturators, which enabled patients with cleft palate to enjoy
normal speech and function.[1] He was the first person in 1880 to introduce the concept of "jumping
the bite for patients with a retruded mandible.

Kingsley attained skills in sculpturing and was well known for his crafts in crafting
dental prosthesis. He won two gold medals in a row at World's fair Competitions in
New York City (1853) and Paris (1855). He published a report of the case, a child
with a V shaped alveolar arch, in 1858 in the New York Dental Journal. In 1859,
Kingsley created an artificial palate of soft vulcanized India rubber for his first
patient with a cleft palate. He eventually moved into teaching and became the
Founder of the New York College of Dentistry, serving as its first dean from 1865 to
1869. Kingsley was also known for his work related to the vulcanite palatal plate
which consisted of anterior incline which allowed a person to bite forward with their
lower jaw. His appliance was later modified by Hotz and it was known as
Vorbissplatte.

During 1870s, Kingsley was working on a textbook. In 1880, he published, A

Treatise on Oral Deformities as a Branch of Mechanical Surgery, which was
published in New York and later in Germany and England. This was the first truly
comprehensive textbook that talked about orthodontic problems and treatments. This
textbook discussed about the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment planning should be
the foundations of practice of a working orthodontist. This textbook was the first to
discuss cleft palate treatment in terms of orthodontics.
He was also a prolific writer with over 100 articles on Cleft Lip and Palate
Rehabilitation.
He retired in 1904 in New York City.

Contributions
During 1860s, he introduced the concept of Jumping the Bite with the
use of Bite plate.
In 1879, he introduced Occipital Traction into the field of Orthodontics.
In 1859, he perfected Gold Obturator and Artificial Vellum of soft
rubber.
In 1858, he published the first paper on modern orthodontics