Off to Brighton September 20-22 for the annual British Orthodontic Conference, organised by the British Orthodontic Society. For the first time, I’ve been invited to be one of the main speakers. More than 1,000 orthodontists attended the conference and I had 800 in my audience – I’ve never spoken to so many people before. Did I get nervous? You bet I did!
I did a joint presentation with renowned restorative dentist Dr Chris Orr entitled ‘The orthodontic-restorative interface: Making each other’s lives easier’. The topic was suggested by the conference chairman, who had asked me to talk on this as he knows it’s one of my interests.
People tend to think of orthodontics as just straightening teeth but with complex problems, there’s growing potential in jointly managing patient care with a restorative dentist. It can lead to better outcomes; the orthodontist facilitates the restorative dentistry by optimising the bite and tooth positions, and restoring and replacing missing teeth can help stabilise the orthodontic outcome as well as put the finishing touches on the smile.
It’s a kind of symbiosis, with the whole becoming greater than the two parts. It is all too easy for one to focus on one’s own area of expertise and look at things with blinkers on but with the two specialities together, you can do some remarkable things. I hope we converted quite a few to our way of thinking.
The conference was held at the Brighton Centre. What a bonus it was to be by the sea, and even better to be put up in style at the wonderful Grand Hotel with a seafront room to boot! It was definitely worth the nerves.
