SPECIAL ARTICLE

Orthodontics in 3 millennia. Chapter 1: Antiquity to the mid-19th century

Norman Wahl Sequim, Wash Orthodontics had its beginnings in the time of the ancient Egyptians, who used crude metal bands and catgut, but it was not until the late 18th century that the rst practical appliances came into use. These were ne-tuned during the early 1900s; todays mechanisms are merely renements. Major changes occurred when practitioners originally physicians began turning their attention from cosmetic regulating to occlusion and stability, while empiricism gave way to objectivity and the scientic method. The purpose of this article is to review the history of orthodontics from antiquity to the modern era. The article is divided into chapters that will be presented serially in every other issue of the Journal. (Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2005;127:255-9)

ver since Eve ashed Adam her rst grin, we have been concerned about our smiles. However, it would be another 100 millennia1 before we could do anything about it. Although the smile was the rst goal for early regulators, it was occlusion that gave orthodontics its scientic foundation. Now it appears that facial esthetics is again in the forefront as we realize why patients come to us in the rst place. From evidence found in human skulls, crooked teeth have been around since the time of Neanderthal man (about 50,000 bc), but it was not until about 3000 years ago that we had the rst written record of attempts to correct crowded or protruding teeth.2 Long before braces, long before the word orthodontics was coined, it was known that teeth moved in response to pressure. Primitive (and surprisingly well-designed) orthodontic appliances have been found with Greek and Etruscan artifacts.3 Archaeologists have discovered Egyptian mummies with crude metal bands wrapped around individual teeth. It is speculated that catgut was used to close the gaps.4
ORTHODONTICS IN GREECE AND ROME

to be shed is to be drawn out and the new one daily pushed toward its place by means of the nger until it arrives at its just proportion. That might still be good advice, but kids today do not need ancient history to tell them how to goad a high canine into place. Probably the rst mechanical treatment was advocated by Pliny the Elder (ad 23-79), who suggested ling elongated teeth to bring them into proper alignment. This method remained in practice until the 1800s.5
MIDDLE AGES (5TH TO 15TH CENTURIES) TO THE 18TH CENTURY

The earliest description of irregularities of the teeth was given about 400 bc by Hippocrates (ca 460-377 bc). The rst treatment of an irregular tooth was recorded by Celsus (25 bc-ad 50), a Roman writer, who said, If a second tooth should happen to grow in children before the rst has fallen out, that which ought
Private practice, Glendale, Calif. Reprint requests to: Dr Norman Wahl, 202 Williamson Rd, Sequim, WA 98382-3096; e-mail, [email protected]. Submitted, October 2004; revised and accepted, November 2004. 0889-5406/$30.00 Copyright 2005 by the American Association of Orthodontists. doi:10.1016/j.ajodo.2004.11.013

Progress during the Middle Ages was nil. Dentistry entered a period of marked decline, as did all sciences. After the 16th century, considerable progress was made, although little was written of orthodontics during this period. In France, students of dentistry were admitted to a university as early as 1580. The rst mention of practicing dentistry exclusively was made by Pierre Dionis (1658-1718). He called dentists operators for the teeth and stated that they could also open or widen the teeth when they are set too close together. Matthaeus Gottfried Purmann (1692) was the rst to report taking wax impressions. In 1756, Phillip Pfaff used plaster of Paris impressions.6 Malocclusions were called irregularities of the teeth, and their correction was termed regulating. It remained for the Enlightenment to reawaken the spirit of scientic thought necessary to advance dentistry and other disciplines. Beginning in the 18th century, the leading country in the eld of dentistry was France. This was due, in large measure, to the efforts of 1 man: Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761; Fig 1) has been called the Father of
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Fig 1. Pierre Fauchard.

Fig 3. Fauchards bandeau rened.

Fig 2. Fauchards bandeau.

Orthodontia. He was the rst to remove dentistry from the bonds of empiricism and put it on a scientic foundation. In 1728, he published the rst general work on dentistry, a 2-volume opus entitled The Surgeon Dentist: A Treatise on the Teeth. Fauchard described, but probably was not the rst to use, the bandeau, an expansion arch consisting of a horseshoe-shaped strip of precious metal to which the teeth were ligated (Fig 2). This became the basis for Angles E-arch, and even today its principles are used in unraveling a crowded dentition. He also repositioned teeth with a forceps, called a pelican because of its resemblance to the beak of that bird, and ligated the tooth to its neighbors until healing took place. At that time, little attention was paid to anything other than the alignment of teeth and then almost exclusively to the maxilla.7

Fauchards bandeau was rened (Fig 3) by Etienne Bourdet (1722-1789), dentist to the king of France. His was the rst record of recommending serial extraction (1757) and of extracting premolars to relieve crowding. He was also the rst to practice lingual orthodontics, expanding the arch from the lingual. There followed a long line of lingual appliances, including the jackscrew, the expansion plate, and, closer to our time, the lingual arch. Although he was not a dentist, John Hunter (17281793; Fig 4) made the greatest advances in dentistry of his time. An English anatomist and surgeon, Hunter took a particular interest in the anatomy of the teeth and jaws. His text, The Natural History of the Human Teeth (1771), presented the rst clear statement of orthopedic principles. He was the rst to describe normal occlusion to attempt to classify the teeth. He established the difference between teeth and bone and gave the teeth names like cuspidati and bicuspidati.8 He was the rst to describe the growth of the jaws, not as a hypothesis, but as a sound, scientic investigation. His ndings have never been successfully challenged.9
EUROPEAN PIONEERS OF THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Joseph Fox (1776-1816), a student of Hunter, was another Englishman who made notable contributions to the budding science of orthodontics. He devoted 4 chapters of his book, The Natural History and Diseases of the Human Teeth (1814), to that topic. The rst to

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Fig 4. John Hunter.

Fig 5. Removable plate used by Friedrich Christoph Kneisel and John Tomes.

classify malocclusion (1803), he was also one of the rst to observe that the mandible grows mainly by distal extension beyond the molars, with little or no increase in the anterior region. According to Weinberger,2 Fox was the rst to give explicit directions for correcting the irregularities of teeth. He was particularly interested in the judicious removal of deciduous teeth, treatment timing, and the use of bite blocks to open the bite. His other appliances included an expansion arch and a chincup (about 1802). Joachim Lefoulon, a Frenchman, is probably best known for having given the science a name: orthodontosie (1841), which roughly translates into orthodontia. He was also the rst to combine a labial arch with a lingual arch. In the area of etiology, he arrived at factors of an entirely different character from those of most authorities. These were based on biologic phenomena controlling the growth, form, and dimension of organs and tissues.2 Christophe-Franois Delabarre (1787-1862; French) introduced the crib and the principle of the lever and the screw (1815). He separated crowded teeth by means of swelling threads or wooden wedges placed between them. J. M. Alexis Schange (1807-?, French) in 1841 published the rst work conned to orthodontics. He introduced a modication of the screw, the clamp band, and, in 1842, 3 years after the vulcanization process had been developed, rubber bands (actually, sections of rubber tubing). He also coined the term anchorage. Friedrich Christoph Kneisel (1797-1847, German), was the dentist to Prince Charles of Prussia. He was the rst to use plaster models to record malocclusion

(1836). That same year, when he tted his prognathic patient with a chin strap, he became the rst to use a removable appliance. Kneisel wrote the rst French and German treatises devoted exclusively to orthodontics. He and John Tomes (1812-1895, English) used various removables (Fig 5). Tomes was also rst to demonstrate bone resorption and apposition.2
AMERICAN PIONEERS OF THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Before the time of Edward Angle and Calvin Case, the treatment of malocclusions was chaotic, with little understanding of normal occlusion and even less understanding of the development of the dentition. Appliances were primitive, not only in design but also in the metals and materials used. There was no rational basis for diagnosis and case analysis.10 In the United States before the 1830s, there was no dental degree. All work in the mouth was done by physicians, barbers, or charlatans, and there were no such terms as orthodontics and malocclusion. There were no contributions of value to the specialty by American authorsin fact, orthodontics had little literature until 1880. However, during approximately the fourth decade of that century, most of these voids began to be lled, as this country gained the commanding position in dentistry. In 1834, the rst American dental association, the Society of Surgeon Dentists of the City and State of New York, was founded. In later decades, Americans invented vulcanite and other dental materials, pioneered the electric drill, and discovered anesthesia.

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The invention of vulcanite by Charles Goodyear in 1839 greatly reduced the cost and weight of dental plates and other appliances. Made by adding sulfur to rubber, vulcanite could be used to make dentures by heating the mixture in a mold. The rst attempts to commercialize the new material were not practical because it softened when heated and was partially soluble in water. When Goodyear accidentally discovered sulfur cross-linking, rubber became a workable material.12 E. G. Tucker, one of the rst to use this new material in his appliances, was the rst American to use rubber bands (1846). In 1852, the rst national dental association in this country (the American Society of Dental Surgeons, 1840), formed a committee on dental irregularities. In the rst report given by Tucker, he condemned the practice of early extraction of deciduous teeth.5
Fig 6. Chapin A. Harris. EARLY CONCEPTS OF ETIOLOGY

As early as 1797, Josiah Flagg (1763-1816) of Boston advertised that he regulates teeth from their rst teeth, to prevent pain and fevers in children, assist nature in the extension of the jaw, for a beautiful arrangement of a second set of teeth. Philadelphia dentist Leonard Koecker (1728-1850) offered to supply ligatures to teeth of an irregular position and was an advocate of early treatment, stating that if placed under proper care at an early age, the greater portion of the teeth of the permanent set may invariably be preserved to perfect health and regularity, and that if rst molars be extracted at any period before the age of twelve years, all the anterior teeth will grow more or less backwards and the second and third molars . . . ll up the vacant space.2 J. S. Gunnell invented occipital anchorage in 1822, beginning orthodontists 180-year struggle to get their patients to wear headgears. In 1839, the rst dental journal, the American Journal of Dental Science, was established through the efforts of Solyman Brown (1790-1876), who wrote the rst patient-education material (Importance of Regulating the Teeth of Children); Levi S. Parmly (17901859), founder of a dental dynasty; and Chapin A. Harris (1806-1860; Fig 6), who edited the journal from 1839 to 1858. Harris was also instrumental, with Horace H. Hayden (1769-1844), in founding the rst school of dentistry that year at the University of Maryland, where he gave the rst lectures on irregularities of the teeth.11 In 1840, he published the rst modern classic book on dentistry, The Dental Art. His innovations included the use of gold caps on molars to open the bite and knobs soldered to a band for tooth rotations.

Along with attempts to regulate crooked or protruding teeth came efforts to determine how they got that way. Although some fanciful causes were put forth to explain malocclusion, they were surprisingly well grounded. By the middle of the 19th century, almost all of the pressure habits, including those of the tongue and lips, had been advanced, and some practitioners were talking about congenital and hereditary factors, dietary deciencies, diseases (both physical and mental), and supernumerary teeth. A few even mentioned growth.13 Overbite was believed to be due to mouth breathing, and underbite was thought to stem from persistent thrusting of the jaw, imitation, breathing difculties, and nger habits. Only a few considered it hereditary. Lefoulon, one of the keenest observers of his time, offered (1841) these factors: (1) constitutional differences brought about by social, economic, and geographic conditions; (2) prenatal conditions; (3) a disease process, such as scrofula; and (4) abnormal pressures during speech.2 During the next century, other authors offered their pet theories for malocclusion: Kingsley considered it a result of interracial mixture. Cases theory was that a child inherited the maxilla from 1 parent and the mandible from the other. Talbot thought that endocrine glands were a possible cause. Angle recognized the importance of rhinology by 1904. Rogers suggested myofunctional causes (pernicious tongue and lip habits) (1918). Brash supported the theory of inheritance (1929).

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Case showed remarkable foresight in differentiating between dental malposition and dentofacial imperfections, comparable to todays terms, dentoalveolar and skeletal.10
REFERENCES 1. Early modern Homo sapiens. Available at http://anthro.palomar. edu/homo2/modern humans.htm. Accessed October 22, 2004. 2. Weinberger BW. Historical rsum of the evolution and growth of orthodontia. J Am Dent Assoc 1934;21:2001-21. 3. Proft WR, Fields HW, editors. Contemporary orthodontics. 3rd ed. Saint Louis: Mosby; 2000. 4. Paladin P. Orthodontists mark centennial of dentistrys oldest, largest specialty. Available at: http://www.braces.org/history/. Accessed May 19, 2004. 5. Asbell MB. A brief history of orthodontics. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 1990;98:176-83.

6. Salzmann JA, editor. Practice of orthodontics. Philadelphia: Lippincott; 1966. p. 2. 7. Casto FM. A historical sketch of orthodontia. Dent Cosmos 1934;76:111-35. 8. Asbell MB. Bicentenary of a dental classic: John Hunters Natural History of the Human Teeth. J Am Dent Assoc 1972;84:1311-4. 9. Brodie AG. Orthodontic history and what it teaches. Angle Orthod 1934;4:85-97. 10. Dewel BF. The Case-Dewey-Cryer extraction debate. Am J Orthod 1964;50:862-5. 11. Asbell MB. Dentistry: a historical perspective. Bryn Mawr, Pa: Dorrance; 1988. p. 18-9. 12. Matasa C. Polymers in orthodontics: a present danger? In: Graber TM, Eliades T, Athanasiou EA, editors. Risk management in orthodontics. Carol Stream, Ill: Quintessence; 2004. p. 113. 13. Brodie AG. Orthodontic concepts prior to the death of Edward H Angle. Angle Orthod 1956;26:144-54.