Let's Go to San Francisco!

Yep, destination for the hippies of the world in the summer of love back in the 1960's, San Francisco is now the convergence points for orthodontists from every corner of the globe for the biggest orthodontics conference on the planet, the American Association of Orthodontists' annual meeting, AAO 2015.

As you know, Swords Orthodontics likes to stay up to date with what is going on in the specialty of orthodontics and what new ideas and equipment and materials are available, so Dr Murray and his three nurses attended the event.

As well as the lectures from the world's leading orthodontic researchers and clinical practice experts, there is a lot of orthodontic politics and administration and Dr Murray represented Ireland at one of the events, the World Federation of Orthodontists breakfast meeting. The WFO represents orthodontists from all over the world, and Dr Murray was at a table with the president of the Chilean orthodontist's society, and delegates from Belgium and Pakistan. We listened to the various officers of the organisation explain their activities for the year gone past and the upcoming World Orthodontic Congress which will be happening in London later in the year. As Ron Burgundy would say "it's kind of a big deal" as it only happens once every 5 years - a bit like the olympics of orthodontics but everyone wins. 

There was an enormous trade show, where they have representatives for all the major orthodontic companies with their new innovations and materials for us to examine and try out - braces, archwires, retainer products, Invisalign, alternatives to Invisalign, computer systems for managing ortho practices, dental chairs and so on.

 There were social events and concerts, and anyone old enough to remember MT USA with Vincent Hanley will smile to hear that the band for the opening ceremony was Huey Lewis and The News. Is it indeed hip to be square? Well, this is the place to find out, as there are few things more square than thousands of orthodontists in one place talking about how to get the straightest teeth and the best smiles!