Jeff Nickel, Program Director and

Laura Iwasaki, Leo A. Rogers Chair

University of Missouri-Kansas City

AAOF Funding has been and is Key to our Progress in Orthodontic Research

Ten years ago we submitted our first funding application to the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF). This important beginning, our first Biomedical Research Award, allowed us to move forward with our research in many ways. This AAOF funding was an essential ingredient as we set out to study the factors that affect the speed of orthodontic tooth movement. Other essential components were the talented collaborators that we found at the University of Nebraska, who brought their expertise and experience in molecular biology to the table, and the energetic and exceptionally talented Jim Haack, who was an orthodontic resident at the time. This initial project was the basis for Jim’s M.S. thesis, 2 publications, and a set of new clinically and scientifically relevant questions that initiated a series of orthodontic research projects.

The resultant series of orthodontic research projects was fueled by 2 additional Biomedical Research Awards and is currently supported by a Center Award. The body of work that has resulted from AAOF funding has lead to clinically useful and fundamental data on the nature and speed of human tooth movement and the variables that affect it. This funding has supported 6 residents’ research projects to date and our research collaborations have broadened to include experts in genetics and bone from the Medical College of South Carolina and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

We would be remiss if we did not also acknowledge the importance of the AAOF funding in support of Graduate Orthodontic Programs that was available through 2003. This allowed each orthodontic resident involved in a research project a relatively modest amount of funding for her/his project. However, the results of this funding to the residents, the programs, and to the field of orthodontics are quite notable. For example, during the 7 year-period of 1997 – 2003 in our laboratory, this funding supported, at least in part, the research projects of 16 orthodontic residents and lead to 12 M.S. degrees and 13 publications. In addition to the studies of human tooth movement, we supervised projects on friction in orthodontic appliances, the mechanical properties of the temporomandibular joint disc, and modeling of the human jaw system. Projects on these 2 latter topics provided preliminary data for another of our current studies, entitled: “Effects of gender and temporomandibular disorder on mandibular mechanics,” which is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

We are indebted to the AAOF for supporting our past and current research. Any sort of survey of our peers and colleagues involved in orthodontic and dentofacial orthopedics research would show the importance of funding from the AAOF to their successes and to progress in the field. The future of this field and our profession depends on support of research by independent investigators and groups of investigators. Fundamental discoveries in the past century have lead to the recent surge of discoveries in the realms of genetics, proteomics, and molecular and nano-particular engineering. The growing wealth of new knowledge and technical capabilities is exciting. However, for our discipline to share in this wealth, bridge research is needed to bring the new information, techniques, and instrumentation to the clinical realm in orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics.

We ask ourselves 3 questions: who will do this research to move our field forward and improve clinical treatment, how will this important research be funded, and who will teach our profession about the discoveries? With the help of the AAOF, we and others to date have been trying to fulfill these questions, but what about the future? Consider the paucity of people, incentives, and funds available to address these questions. Programs in orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics attract among the best and brightest dental graduates, the vast majority of whom go on to be highly successful clinicians in private practice. In our own experience, of some 45 former orthodontic residents that we have worked with, we know of only 3 who are currently involved in teaching, all as part-time faculty. However, the potential for moving our field forward through research and the incorporation of new discoveries to clinical practice is clear: we have a wealth of exceptional students entering the field, of important questions to be answered, and of discoveries being made around us. The profession itself and those interested in it, must realize the critical nature of addressing the aforementioned 3 questions for the future. Support of the AAOF is one significant way in which individuals can contribute and help the future of the field and the profession. Undoubtedly, the AAOF has a continued role to play as the life-blood for current and future researchers and educators and their research and teaching endeavors.