Classic article
Principles of retention in orthodontia

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Abstract

This article was read before the American Society of Orthodontists in April 1920 in Chicago; it was published in the International Journal of Orthodontia & Oral Surgery (a previous name of the AJO-DO) in November (1920;6:33-51). At that time, Dr Case (1847-1923) was a professor of orthodontics at Chicago College of Dental Surgery (now Loyola University of Chicago). Case was born in Jackson, Mich. After fighting in the Civil War, he studied dentistry and earned both DDS and MD degrees. He practiced dentistry in Jackson and then specialized in orthodontics. He stressed facial esthetics and extractions, when needed, over occlusion. The author of 123 articles, he also wrote chapters in several books. He is considered one of the “Big Four” in orthodontics, along with Angle, Dewey, and Ketcham.

Section snippets

Importance of permanent retention

One of the most prominent orthodontists of New York City said to me, in substance, a few months ago, that the practice of orthodontia was beginning to be feared by many of our best orthodontists as more or less of a failure. And when I asked him why, he said: “Because it is impossible to permanently retain a very large proportion of our regulated cases.”

If this statement is true, coming as it did from one who is in close touch with the pulse of his profession, I must say that I regard it as one

Difficulties of permanent retention

I think it will be admitted that our greatest difficulties in permanency of retention are found among the very cases which seem to be the most necessary to correct. I refer to those decided disto-mesial occlusal malrelations of the buccal teeth in Classes II and III in which are found those pronounced dentofacial protrusions and retrusions which we are always more than anxious to permanently correct.

In Class I malocclusion, in which by far the greatest variety of irregularities arise, nearly

The author's early experience

In the winter of 1891 and 1892, I commenced the exclusive practice of orthodontia in Chicago. Previous to that, for nearly twenty-five years, I was engaged in the general practice of dentistry in Jackson, Michigan. During the later years of that time I had gained quite a reputation as an orthodontist through papers which I had read before prominent societies. I had even given a clinic before the First District Dental Society of New York City on “the Angle System of Orthodontia,” and I had also

The normal occlusion dogma

Before leaving this subject, I must beg your indulgence for a few movments in a little wider consideration of the radical formula that “in all cases the dentures should be placed in normal occlusion without the loss of a single tooth or its substitute.” I believe that the day is not far distant when that teaching and its invariable application will be regarded as one of the great retarding forces of orthodontia, and in its place will come a rational scientific common sense orthodontia, stripped

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Note: Fig 6, Fig 7 courtesy of Dental Cosmos.

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