SUMMARY OF OUR BLOG FOR 2021.

As usual, our last blog of the year is the combination of thoughts about blog-related orthodontics for the last year and a summary of blog activity and most popular posts.

Blog

This has been another excellent year for our blog.  It has been great to have Padhraig Fleming take a more significant role in writing posts. We also decided to reduce the number of posts. This is because we all had a lot to think about apart from orthodontics.  I worked as a COVID vaccinator, and my free time was reduced. Nevertheless, we published 62 posts and got 420,000 hits, giving an average of 6774 per post. This was slightly up on last year.

However, it has been a good year.  I think that we have been less controversial, or perhaps, orthodontics has been less controversial.  The “usual suspects” KOLs appear to have been quieter.  I am not sure why, maybe, they are listening to research?  As a result, authoring the blog has been more comfortable, and I am getting less abuse on social media. Which is nice.

I was also really pleased with the annual donation campaign to support the costs of the blog. This, as usual, was very successful, and we hit our target in 7 days. Thanks again for all your support.

Conferences

This year we saw the reintroduction of face-to-face conferences.  The first of these was the British Conference held in Manchester in September.  On a personal note, it was great to meet up with colleagues again and see some great lectures.  Earlier in the year, the AAO congress was forced to go virtual.  This was a great shame, and I did miss attending this meeting.  It was also bizarre to give the Salzmann lecture from a small, converted barn on the Cornish coast.  Here is the view “from the lecturn”.

I hope that more conferences can return next year.

Our most popular posts

As you know, this blog publishes a combination of personal opinions and commentaries on research papers. As a result, the contents are governed by the papers published by the journals.  At the start of the year, there were only a few clinically relevant papers, and we got off to a quiet start. However, things picked up in the latter part of the year, which is reflected in the top ten read papers. They were all published this year apart from the one on myofunctional orthodontics, which is read by a lot of laypeople and is becoming a classic post on the blog. So here they are in reverse order.  If you want to read them again, just click on the title of each post. Some of the comments sections are brilliant!

10.  INTERPROXIMAL REDUCTION: SPLITTING HAIRS?

Many of us use interproximal reduction (IPR) daily as a conservative means of space creation. We all seem to have our way of doing this. However, few can claim to know how precise we are at undertaking the procedure.

9.  WHAT IS BEST FOR ORTHODONTIC SPACE CLOSURE? NI-TI, POWER CHAIN OR ACTIVE LIGATURES?

Space closure following extractions significantly contributes to treatment duration.  We use several methods of applying force to close space. But which is best?

8.  MAXILLARY EXPANSION IMPROVES CHILDREN’S QUALITY OF LIFE! A TREMENDOUS NEW TRIAL.

Now and then, a team of investigators publishes an excellent paper. This new report outlines a trial that provides us with clinically important information on the effects of RPE.

7.  THREE-DIMENSIONAL CBCT IMAGING: PRETTY PICTURES BUT A RISK OF CANCER?

Very occasionally, I come across something in orthodontics that worries me.  However, sometimes I also get cross. These CBCT images of a six-year-old do both.

6.  LET’S HAVE A FIRST LOOK AT MIDFACIAL SKELETAL EXPANSION (MSE).

Orthodontics may be in an expansionist phase. Recently, there has been a large amount of social media publicity about Midfacial Skeletal Expansion (MSE). I thought that this paper provided us with some initial evidence about this technique.

5.  WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT MYOFUNCTIONAL ORTHODONTICS…

In this post, I am going to revisit the concept of myofunctional orthodontics.  I have decided to do this because there has been increased advertising about this type of treatment.

4.  ARE WE SLOWLY LOSING CONTROL OF OUR PROFESSION?

This is a guest post by Dr. Chris Riolo who is a full-time specialist orthodontist in Seattle, USA. He discusses one way we can begin to take control of both our workflow and data using in-house aligners facilitated by our professional organizations.  It is a very interesting and ambitious viewpoint.

3.  A WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS ON ORTHODONTIC RETENTION

Occasionally someone publishes a great piece of work about an orthodontic problem.  I was impressed with the latest edition of the British Dental Journal. The whole issue was devoted to orthodontic retention.  This collection is a “must-read” for all dental clinicians.

2.  FIXED RETAINERS FAIL A LOT! A NEW TRIAL

Retention is one of the most important parts of orthodontic treatment. Surprisingly, we do not have a substantial body of evidence to help us decide our retention regimes.  This new trial shows that there is a high level of failure of bonded retainers.  It made me think about my retention regimes.

1.  A CLOSER LOOK AT MAXILLARY SKELETAL EXPANSION (MSE).

Some time ago, I did a post on Maxillary Skeletal Expansion (MSE). I wrote this as an introduction to the technique. Since then, I have obtained updated information on the evidence that underpins this treatment. I hope that you find it useful.

That’s it for this year. I would like to thank you all for reading our posts.  I hope that you all have a good holiday and break. We will start posting again in the first week of the New Year with the usual “Hopes and Dreams for Orthodontics” post.