Most popular posts of 2019
My blog has had another successful year with an increase in the number of hits to just over half a million. This is up by about 10,000 on last year. In this last post of the year, I am going to simply list and provide links to the most popular posts of the last year. I know that you may have read them, but it is worth having another look at them if only to read the comments. Just click on the titles. We will start with number 10 and countdown to number 1 which was the most widely read.
10) Patients do not need to wear their Twin Blocks full time: A new trial.
Occasionally a study team carry out a trial that changes practice, and I feel that this new trial is one of these studies. Most of the time we ask our patients to wear their functional appliances full time. However, we do not really know if our patients achieve this target. Fortunately, the development of intra-oral timers has allowed us to measure compliance with removable appliances, and these investigators used this new technology in this trial. This post generated a lot of comments!
9) Is sexism an issue in orthodontics and dentistry?
This was a post that was not concerned with clinical orthodontics, but I hope that I raised an important issue. I pointed out that I am a male and I have never been subject to discrimination. However, do we have a problem with sexism in orthodontics and dentistry? Again this post generated a lot of replies and has led to a new area of my work in 2020.
8) We need to talk about Myofunctional Orthodontics
This is a post from 2017 and is still getting a lot of hits. I think that a fair number of these may be from laypeople. I have read this again and it still reflects our current state of knowledge. We need to decide whether this is a revolutionary method of orthodontic treatment or “snake oil”?
7) Let’s talk about Invisalign Mandibular Advancement
Invisalign has been a significant development in orthodontic treatment. I was, therefore, very interested in their expansion into the teen market. One innovation that looks interesting is its Mandibular Advancement Appliance. This post generated a large number of comments. These were mostly concerned with the role of the Invisalign KOLs in promoting this treatment. I published this post a year ago and the KOLs suggested that high-quality research was on its way. The tumbleweed is still blowing through the empty streets of clear aligner research.
6) Align Technology responds to my post about mandibular advancement.
When I published the mandibular advancement post, I got a fierce rebuttal from Invisalign and I was informed that my statements were not correct. I offered them a post to respond to my discussion. This is their contribution. Again, there was a large number of perceptive comments.
5) A sensible guide to functional appliance treatment?
I wrote this on my return from the AAO meeting in Los Angeles. At this meeting, I saw several presentations on the use of growth modification appliances. Several presenters made claims about growing mandibles and improving breathing. As a result, I thought that it was a good time to revisit some of the basic information on the correction of Class II problems with removable functional appliances.
My colleague and friend Professor Jonathan Sandler worked with me on this post.
4) Is Smile Direct Club tele orthodontic treatment effective?
Smile Direct Club is a company that provides remote teleorthodontic aligner treatment without the patient seeing a dentist. This is a controversial area of orthodontic treatment provision. I was, therefore, very interested in finding a paper on the effectiveness of this treatment that was published in a predatory journal. This was commented on many times. It was read 6,500 times.
3) My favourite orthodontic social media sites.
I have come across many orthodontic and research sites. Some are excellent, some very poor and some just weird. This was a simple list of the main sites that I had come across, and I hope that you still find it useful. It was read 7,000 times. I got a lot of hassle about this post from some of the sites. Some of this was not very pleasant.
2) A brilliant summary of orthodontics and obstructive sleep apnoea.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a serious disorder. The role of orthodontists in its treatment was the theme of the recent AAO Winter meeting. This post was a great summary by Dr Greg Jorgensen, a US specialist, who attended the meeting. It was read just over 10,00 times. I thought that it was great.
1) Are these the early days of the self-destruction of orthodontics?
This was the most read post with 10,500 hits. I had just returned from the AAO congress in Los Angeles and took a short break after the meeting in the Joshua Tree National Park. This gave me the chance to reflect on the direction of orthodontics and its potential decline. In retrospect, this was rather a dystopian post and reflected my emotions at that time. However, it clearly was interesting to a large number of readers. Was I too pessimistic, it is up to you to decide?
That’s the top ten posts. It has been good to revisit them and read the comments. I hope that you are still finding my blog useful. I will post again the New Year with the annual post on my “Hopes and Dreams for orthodontics in 2020”. I hope that all of you who are taking a holiday have a good time.
Emeritus Professor of Orthodontics, University of Manchester, UK.
