Kevin O'Brien's Orthodontic Blog

I had the honour and pleasure of working with Professor Bill Shaw in Manchester for 40 years.  His research in orthodontics raised fundamental questions about the need and benefits of treatment, he supervised the development of the PAR and IOTN indices, he was one of the main drivers of RCT methodology in orthodontics and was a founder member of the Cochrane Oral Health ...

Last week, I gave a lecture at the European Orthodontic Conference in Dublin. One of the topics I addressed was orthodontic quackery. I think this section was well received, so I decided to turn it into a short blog post. It includes my comments on the waves of “special” treatments I have encountered over the past 40 years.

I would like to...

I have just returned from the European Orthodontic Society Conference in Dublin. This was a great meeting. There was a strong mix of well-known speakers delivering keynote presentations. In addition, many younger orthodontists presented short papers on their work. Importantly, most presentations were grounded in high-quality evidence and research. This was refreshing and has ...

We should all be concerned about the impact of our daily activities on the environment. Recently, the environmental impact of some aspects of medical health care has been investigated. However, very few studies have examined this issue for orthodontic treatment.

This interesting new paper provides us with initial information on the environmental impact of fixed app...

Studies on sleep-disordered breathing and orthodontics are coming thick and fast. This new trial was notable for examining the effect of expansion on obstructive sleep apnoea in teenagers at the post-pubertal growth stage. Impor...