Friday, July 23, 2010

Random Ortho Trivia

1. If you are right handed, you probably chew most of the time with the teeth on the right side of your mouth.

2. Around 400 B.C. in Greece, the great medical scientist Hippocrates wrote of attempts to straighten teeth.

3. Dr Edward Angle (1855-1930) is considered to be "The Father of Modern Orthodontics". He founded the world's first school for orthodontic education in St. Louis, Missouri in 1989.

4. As recently as the 1960's, it could take 8 hours to put braces on a patient.

5. Model Cindy Crawford, singer Gwen Stafani and actress Cameron Diaz have all worn braces as adults.

6. Levi Spear Parmly (1790-1859), a New Orleans dentist, promoted flossing teeth with silk thread in 1815.  Floss was patented in 1898 by Johnson and Johnson.

7. In 1848, Milton Waldo Hanchett of Syracuse, NY patented the dental chair.

8. In Paris, Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761)  wrote the book, The Surgeon Dentist, which included a chapter on how to straighten teeth.

9. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, French dentists encouraged people to brush their teeth.

10. The nickel-titanium wires used by orthodontists today where developed by NASA.

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