History of Orthodontics
Though it may seem that the history of orthodontics cannot extend very far back in time, people have been trying to straighten teeth for many decades now.
While it’s true that the concept of a shiny office featuring top of the line technology is relatively recent, the actual art of correcting crooked teeth has been happening since 1000 BC. As it turns out, many people that lived during that time had irregular teeth too. Although the person attempting to correct those crooked teeth was not always a doctor (sometimes, the town silver smith would do just fine), people still insisted that their teeth look good. To begin looking at the history of orthodontics, we will have to jump back in time all the way to 1850 AD.
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Through various excavations, historians have found that a man by the name of Dr. Norman Kingsley was one of the first to try and fix protruding teeth by using force. Prior to Dr. Kingsley’s ideas, those teeth that did not agree with one’s face were simply extracted – without novocaine (ouch!). Due to the fact that a large number of people are born without perfect teeth, most people during Dr. Kingsley’s time were missing a great many teeth. As you can imagine, these “operations” were conducted for purely aesthetic reasons, which is why nobody really cared about a person’s overall bite.
By the time a man named Dr. Edward Angle came along some time after Dr. Kingsley, teeth were looked at in an entirely new manner. From the moment Angle stepped onto the scene, the history of orthodontics changed dramatically. Rather than focus upon the overall appearance of teeth, Dr. Angle wanted to actually correct the way that a person was able to bite and chew – imagine! Due to the many theories, concepts, and contraptions that Angle came up with, he is now known as the “Father of Modern Orthodontics.”
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Though many other things happened form the time Angle took over, most type of orthodontics since then have largely been built upon his original theories. Thankfully, Angle came along and changed the way that teeth were straightened (also the invention of novocaine is of some importance).
From pulling teeth to fixing them, the history of orthodontics is quite an interesting one. The next time that you sit down in your orthodontist’s chair, think about the way things used to be done – chance are, you’ll gain a whole new appreciation for this profession in no time.