History of Orthodontics: Advancements from 1700s to 1800s

Since early times, people have always wanted to have the perfect set of teeth. And since then, orthodontic procedures such as teeth straightening and tooth extraction to improve the alignment of teeth were already being performed.

Archeologists have discovered that orthodontic procedures have already existed during Greek and roman times. Most significant events in orthodontics also started emerging around 1700s. However, orthodontics wasn’t really recognized as a science of its own until 1880’s.

In 1728, a French dentist named Pierre Fauchard published a book entitled “The Surgeon Dentist”, which explained ways for other dentists to straighten crooked teeth. In his book, Pierre described a horseshoe-like piece of metal that can he used to expand the arch.

In 1757, another French dentist, Ettiene Bourdet, introduced a book called “The Dentist’s Art”. One chapter of this book was entirely devoted to teeth alignment and the appliances used for assisting this process. Bourdet’s book perfected Fauchard’s tooth aligning device. It also discussed a way to lessen tooth crowding in the mouth by means of removing the premolars. That time, Bourdet was the king of France’s dentist.

Both of these dentists have provided means for other dentists or early orthodontists to correct the alignment of teeth. Because of this, Fauchard and Bourdet are both known as the Fathers of Orthodontics.

In 1771, a Scottish surgeon named John Hunter also published a book entitled “The Natural History of the Human Teeth”, which clearly describes the dental anatomy. In this book, he was able to mention terms like molars, bicuspids, cuspids and incisors. John Hunter’s book proved to be very beneficial not only to early orthodontists but to their clients as well. John Hunter also published another book which he called “A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Teeth”. This book was able to discuss about dental pathology.

Moving on, in the year 1819, Delabarre was able to introduce the wire crib, which paved way for orthodontics. Orthodontics came from the term “orthodontia”, which was used by Joachim Lafoulon in the year1841. In the year 1843, Maynard used gum elastics and Tucker pioneered the cutting of rubber bands from rubber tubing, which he performed in the year 1850. At nearly the end of 1800s, x-rays for orthodontic diagnosis was first used by a man named Eugene Solomon Talbot.

Aside from Fauchard and Bourdet, there are two other men who are being considered as the Fathers of Orthodontics. Norman W. Kingsley, a known dentist, artist and writer published the first ever article about orthodontics. And in the year 1880, he wrote a book entitled “Treatise on Oral Deformities”.

J. N. Farrar is another dentist who is also considered by many as the Father of Orthodontics. Aside from being a brilliant designer of brace appliances, he published two volumes of a book entitled “A Treatise on the Irregularities of the Teeth and Their Corrections. Farrar was also the first dentist who suggested the use of mid force at timed intervals in order to align teeth.

After which, no other advancements have been noted until early 1900s.