Though various devices have been used to straighten teeth since the days of the Ancients Greeks and Romans, it was only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that orthodontics began to develop as separate science.
There is no one person who is universally seen as “The Father of Orthodontics” but several have a claim to the title.
One claim goes as far back as, 1728 when the French surgeon Pierre Fauchard published his book “The Surgeon Dentist”, which included a whole chapter on ways to straighten teeth.
This certainly gave orthodontics a huge push forward – although that term was actually coined in 1841 by Joachim Lafoulon.
But the science was not really put on the map until more than 100 years later.
First, dentist and writer Norman W. Kingsley wrote the first article on orthodontics in 1858 and published his book “Treatise on Oral Deformities” in 1880.
Another major step forward was when dentist J. N. Farrar wrote “A Treatise on the Irregularities of the Teeth and Their Corrections”.
Farrar was also very good at designing brace appliances and was the first to suggest using mild force at timed intervals to move teeth.
In the early 1900s, Edward H. Angle devised a classification system for malocclusions which is still used today.
This system was a way for dentists to describe how crooked teeth were and how they fitted together.
Angle contributed significantly to the design of orthodontic appliances and founded the first college of orthodontics in 1901.
Gradually the field of orthodontics became a respected dental specialty in its own right.
North Texas Orthodontic Associates 