Every year, the World Federation of Orthodontists convenes a meeting of the presidents of the national orthodontic associations around the world. There are about 120 of these connected to the WFO.
The current president of the Orthodontic Society of Ireland (OSI) is Paul Murphy, who operates South Beach Clinic in Greystones, Co Wicklow. As Paul wasn’t able to attend the 2024 WFO Presidents’ meeting, I deputised on behalf of the OSI. I've represented the OSI at a few of these meetings over the years, including when I was president but also some of the meetings before and since, depending on the availability of an OSI president or deputy president or other council member with an interest in attending.
The meeting was held on Sunday May 5th in New Orleans during the annual American Association of Orthodontists' Meeting, with various nations personally represented from the 120-odd national organisations that are affiliated with the WFO. Some countries seem to have more than one organisation, which is vaguely like a scene from Monty Python's movie Life of Brian but more amicable.
The meeting began with a presentation on the forthcoming International Orthodontic Congress (IOC) which will be held from October 22nd to 25th 2025 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The venue was decided during my own time as OSI president as Ireland had been asked to support the hosting bid from the South African society to hold it in Capetown. We were happy to do that, as it was probably more convenient location for Irish orthodontists to get to (and less demanding in terms of time zones), but in the end, Brazil won out and they will hold the event with the theme “Embracing the World”. They are expecting about 10,000 attendees and there will be a call going out later in May this year for people to offer to speak at the conference. It was mentioned that national presidents attending would be encouraged to arrive in by October 20th as they may have their own activities before it kicks off for the general delegation.
Registration is now open with special promotional prices until October this year. More information will be at https://wfo2025rio.org (please copy and paste that link if you want to follow it as I don't want to have to curate the link if the WFO take down the website in the future)
The IOC happens every 5 years. The 2020 one was meant to happen in Yokohama outside Tokyo, Japan but was moved to online as a result of Covid. The venue is chosen well in advance, and the 2030 venue will be Milan - an easy one to get to for Irish people. Milan won over bids from Seoul, Riyadh and Vancouver.
After the IOC matters, Greek orthodontist Pangiotis Skoularikis presented a series of awards from the WFO and Bryce Lee thanked the team that produce the WFO Webinars. The WFO are expecting to update their website and communications systems in a few months.
World Orthodontic Health Day is May 15th and members are encouraged to use the WFO logos in their marketing.
The WFO is interested in developing Specialty Board Exams and there will be a meeting at the IOC to promote this.
An interesting observation (for me anyway) is that some of the national organizations require their members to hold WFO membership as part of their own conditions of membership.
There will be elections forthcoming for new members on the WFO Executive Committee. Letizio Perilla will be president from 2025 to 2030.
The WFO holds an orthodontic art competition and the recent winners were congratulated at the meeting. This was followed by some comments from the AAO President Myron Guymon.
And the meeting concluded shortly after.
The next meeting is expected to happen in Philadelphia, USA in April 2025 and the incoming OSI president will be John Joe McCullagh. Philadelphia plays a big part in the story of the foundation of the USA which coincidentally is celebrating its 250th birthday in 2025.