Sustained mechanical pressure will move teeth that are
not ankylosed. Needless to say, placing a fixed appliance,
ligating an archwire and watching the teeth move over time
may appear relatively easy to the uninitiated. However,
planned and guided movement of teeth into their ideal
aesthetic, functional and stable positions, whilst mitigating
the undesirable effects of treatment, and achieving this in a
reasonable time frame with minimum patient discomfort,
is far from easy.
Dental students and orthodontic trainees in their early
years will often observe their teachers assessing a patient’s
teeth intently, deep in thought. It is no coincidence
that orthodontics has long been known as the ‘thinking
person’s specialty’, and is, in fact, the first established
specialty in dentistry and one of the first throughout
medicine. Orthodontics is a complex and multifaceted
specialty, requiring, amongst other things, a thorough
understanding of normal and aberrant craniofacial growth
and development, dentofacial aesthetics and function, and
the biomechanical principles and utilisation of a variety
of appliances. As such, learning orthodontics requires
dedication and hard work – there is no effortless path and
no available shortcuts.