Orthodontic Outrage

Council:
Tony Miller MB.Ch.B
Mark Kordan
MB ChB MRCGP.
Patrickk Grossmann
LDS BDS DOrth.

This site provides support for patients who feel that they have suffered adverse consequences from orthodontic treatment.

We are supported by a number of different organisations listed below, all of whom believe that patients should be properly warned about extractions. Each organisation provides slightly different help and we suggest you make contact with the one that seems most suited to your need.

MOST SURGERY TO CORRECT COMMON FACIAL DEFORMITIES CAN BE AVOIDED
Modern techniques such as Facial Growth Guidance and Orthotropics can avoid the need for surgery in most children. However most orthodontists and surgeons are untrained in these methods and suppress this information from their patients. They are supported in this by the General Dental Council, the body that is supposed to look after the interests of the public. As a result many patients receive major and potentially life threatening surgery quite unnecessarily.

VERTICAL GROWTH DAMAGES FACES
It is associated with thick lips, receding chins, protruding noses, sloping foreheads, and tired eyes.

Following orthodontic treatment patients sometimes feel that their lower jaw does not fit into their upper. They may complain of jaw ach and headaches and only feel comfortable if they hold their jaw forward.

The teeth often crowd again after treatment and it is upsetting if you were not warned about this especially if you had teeth taken out to prevent it.

Contact:
Secretary
Margaret McCarthy
Brookfield, Three Cups,
East Sussex TN21 9PB

email:
orthodontic.outrage@virgin.net

It is your dentist or orthodontist’s legal responsibility to warn you of possible problems following extractions and to tell you about alternative means of treatment. which might avoid or reduce the need for extractions. If you were not told see legal advice.

Scientists know that it becomes progressively more difficult to influence the growth of the face and jaws after the age of eight and yet most UK dentists and orthodontists wait until puberty by when research shows that it is difficult to move the jaws especially if “train tracks” are used and most children will require the extraction of 4 or 8 sound teeth.

If the patient already has a tendency for a long face with their mouth open, the only hope of avoiding an unattractive adult face with a big nose and flat cheeks is to encourage the face to grow forward. However “train tracks” carry a high risk of having the opposite effect and if this happens the only ‘cure’ may be a complex and dangerous surgical operation to cut the jaw bones and reposition them. UK Orthodontists are aware of this risk but usually fail to warn the patient. If you were not told you have the right to claim for redress (see legal advice).