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According To "Dr. Wo" Wm. Randol Womack, DDS Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

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AAO’s Passion for Excellence
– by Wm. Randol Womack, DDS, Board Certified Orthodontist
Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

It is hard to believe that the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) 110th Annual Session is only a few weeks away. It looks to be another fantastic showcase for the ever-continuing evolution of technology in orthodontics. Just scanning the AAO’s advance information is almost mind-boggling. Here are just a few tip-of-the-iceberg items that I’m looking forward to at this year’s meeting:

Lingual orthodontics is making a real resurgence with presentations by Scuzzo and Takemoto among others. Their “hands-on” limited-attendance events sold out, so the powers that be at the AAO doubled the capacity to handle the demand.

I heard Dr. Dirk Wiechmann’s presentation at the Bologna, Italy International Congress where I shared the program with him last October. He developed the Incognito appliance in Germany and stated that the majority of his fixed appliance cases in his offices are now lingual. In his AAO program summary it states: “Customized lingual appliances have the potential to change orthodontics for the future.” This is surely a seminar you should not pass up.

Talk about changing the future – how would you like to take “digital” impressions instead of the goop and gagging of alginate or PVS? This is now possible with a six-to-eight minute scan for a completed arch and bite registration and the patient can see it in 3D within just minutes.

Then for us conventional wire benders, TriTanium archwire features progressively increasing force moving from anterior to posterior along the arch for greater efficiency, longer treatment intervals, fewer arch changes and superior patient comfort.

3D imaging is still going to be a leading area of interest. I am aware that there is a three-in-one system that lets you select a localized field of view to evaluate just certain areas like impacted cuspids, third molars or supernumeraries. But there is now a new “stitching” feature that enables you to expand the field of view for a larger volume. Even more enticing – the price is now in the very low six-figure range. Still up in the air is the issue of does the doctor read and interpret a CBCT scan or should he/she refer to an OMFR? And if the doctor does refer, does he/she refer all the scans or just certain ones?

Then there are the “outside-the-box” topics that look very interesting. Like: “The effect of stem cells on the craniofacial complex and on the practice of orthodontics,” or the question, “Are manufacturer’s arch forms different than patients’?” Have you considered “surgery-first orthognathics?”

When one mentions TADs, the reality is that this is a protocol that is slowly being integrated in to many practices but it isn’t going away. There are more lectures involving TADs than you can count on one hand.

And relatively new to the list is the integration of the Web and Social Networks into a marketing plan.

I am excited about being at the AAO in Washington, D.C., and I personally invite each of you to visit the Orthotown booth (# 121). If you have any questions about the new Virtual Study Club on Orthotown.com we can answer them for you. I hope to see you there.
Orthotown Magazine
November 2025
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