Treatment of malocclusion of the teeth : Angle's system.

  • Angle, Edward H. (Edward Hartley), 1855-1930.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Treatment of malocclusion of the teeth : Angle's system. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    A greater perfection of the regulating appliances, to- gether with a better comprehension of intermaxillary force and anchorage have made the fulfilment of the demands of occlusion and art far easier and almost universally possible, revolutionizing the practice in the treatment of the second and third classes of malocclusion, as well as greatly lessening the difficulties of establishing normal occlusion in many cases of the first great class. A broader experience and closer study of the alveolar process and peridental membrane have given a clearer comprehension of the important changes in these tissues subsequent to tooth movement. We have learned that at best our efforts are only to assist Nature and that if we correctly inter- pret her wishes and intelligently assist her she will com- plete the growth and development of these tissues normally in accordance with the type of the individual, so that the resort to mutilation, as dominated by the individual judg- ment of the practitioner, is no longer a proper^ plan of treatment, but that it must give place to the logical—the normal—in treatment. So orthodontia has passed from the empirical of the ''old school and has become, we believe, more nearly an exact science than any other branch of dentistry, or pos- sibly of medicine. Very naturally such pronounced changes have been marked by strenuous opposition from a few, but we are pleased to note that they have been promptly accepted by the best element in dentistry. In this case, as is usual in all reforms, the opposition has come from those who should naturally be first to recognize the soundness and value of the principles enunciated—the foremost writers of the ''old school.* Their opposition has taken the usual form of opposition to progress in religion, science, and • See articles by Guilford, Case and others of the old school in Items of Interest, August, 1905.