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

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On Annual Sessions and Virtual Study Clubs
by Wm. Randol Womack, DDS, Board Certified Orthodontist
Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

The American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) Annual Session that was held April 30-May 4, in Washington, D.C., was as “techno-magnficent” as expected. There were almost as many lectures in the exhibit area as in the lecture halls. New clear aligner systems were in abundance from many of the major companies.

Connecting to your office management software with an iPhone was all the rave last year, but new this year you can do it with the iPad. All of the offerings in the temporary anchorage devices (TADs) department have their own positives for a variety of reasons. Even food, coffee and gelato (yum!) was in abundance at this show! I definitely got the impression that at this year’s session, everything was bigger and better than ever.

I also noticed a very broad international attendance. Europe is always well represented, but this year I may have met more South Americans in one hour than in my entire life. I also had a chance to visit with four orthodontists from Baghdad, Iraq, at the Orthotown reception on Monday evening.

I usually come away with one lasting impression from an AAO meeting. This year it was the speech by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. If you missed the meeting, you missed a treat. And if you attended the meeting and missed this speech, you really missed something special. From what I understand, Blair’s speech will not appear on the DVD of the meeting, which I regret, as I would enjoy listening to it again. He is dedicated to a personal goal through the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Its objective is to “counter extremism in all six leading religions.” Former U.S. president Bill Clinton attended the launch of his foundation and described Blair as “a good man as well as a great leader.” Mixing humor, accounts of his term as prime minister and his sincere and charismatic presentation of the foundation, his speech made a lasting impression on all who attended.

At our very own Orthotown booth we witnessed an abundance of interest in the Virtual Study Club, the newest addition to Orthotown.com. We’ve heard a lot of feedback from orthodontists who are most interested in viewing finished cases – to find out how certain diagnoses were treated and learn how cases similar to those they’re working on turned out. To emphasize the benefit of a Virtual Study Club, this section of Orthotown.com was created to provide a “format” for presenting not only beginning records on a case but also progress records and finished records for the same case.

As many of you already know, the Virtual Study Club was designed to answer the question, “What ever happened to that case I saw on Orthotown.com a few months ago?” In the past, a posted case might have just “disappeared” after a period of time, never to surface again. Thus, the Virtual Study Club section of Orthotown.com was developed where posted cases are assigned a case number and they are posted under the “classification” section. These cases can be recalled by: 1. “Subscribing” to the case; 2. Searching for the Case ID number; or 3. Looking in the Classification section of the Virtual Study Club.

If the posting doctor returns to his case to post progress records or finished records, then notices will be published in our e-Newsletter, in Orthotown Magazine and e-mails will be sent to the “subscribing” doctors stating that the case has been updated.

The vision of the Virtual Study Club was to develop an archive of treated cases that could fulfill several purposes. First, to allow all participants in the message boards to actually see what happened to the many very interesting and often complex cases that are posted. Second, to build a library of treated cases that could be accessed by new graduates (or even old ones) to gain insight into how a case they might be diagnosing has been treated. Third, to provide access for instructors in resident programs whereby they can go online in a teaching situation and review for residents cases that may not have presented in their clinic. These cases can be accessed by any orthodontist registered with Orthotown.com from anywhere around the globe. It would also serve to provide examples of orthodontic treatment being done in many different countries around the world where training and treatment philosophies vary.

The action needed now is to build the library of treated cases by having the many participants of Orthotown.com to select just one interesting case they have treated and to post it in the Virtual Study Club. If each “Townie” would do this within the next three months, the library would have a great start toward accomplishing the “vision.” It is not necessary to have three sets of records right now, just beginning and finish will suffice.

Summer is here and it brings a multitude of opportunities to “catch up” on the list of things to do that you made out in January. So enjoy your family and friends and find a few minutes to post a case in the Virtual Study Club.
Orthotown Magazine
October 2025
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