The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kieferorthopädie (DGKFO), otherwise known as the German Orthodontic Society, was founded in 1908 in Cologne by Dr. Emil Herbst of Bremen, Dr. Carl Heydenhauss of Berlin, and Dr. Alfred Körbitz of Berlin. Twenty dentists attended the first meeting due to their interest in orthodontics. Today, the organization serves as the scientific society for orthodontics in Germany and has 2,220 members.

According to Dr. Peter Schopf, president of the German Orthodontic Society, the organization promotes research in orthodontics, informs members of the results of German research projects through the Journal of Orofacial Orthopedics/Fortschritte der Kieferorthopädie, and works together with scientific societies all of over the world. The society also promotes the continuing education of its members, supports research projects of young scientists, and provides awards for outstanding scientific publications and presentations every year.

One of the main functions of the president and the members of the Executive Board, Dr. Schopf notes, is to encourage contact with orthodontic societies in other countries. In fact, the organization encourages all WFO fellows to attend its upcoming 74th Annual Scientific Congress that will be held September 12-16, 2001, in Friedrichshafen, Germany. To foster participation, WFO fellows will be charged the same registration fee as members of the German Orthodontic Society.

"It's our idea that the promotion of participation of colleagues from foreign countries should serve to intensify the international dialogue and to achieve, as well as to strengthen, private contacts over the borders of our country," Dr. Schopf said. "We hope that this arrangement will be taken over by other national societies for the same reasons. It certainly promotes the further development of the WFO and corresponds to the WFO's goals."

The main themes of the meeting are orthodontic space management (traumatic tooth loss, aplasia and preprosthetics), combined orthodontic surgical treatment during growth (indication and results of callus distraction during growth), and lingual orthodontics. Scientific posterboards and table clinic exhibitions will also be part of the program. German is the official language of the convention (no translation). However, Dr. Schopf expects that most participants will understand the English-language lectures of the foreign speakers. Friedrichshafen is located on the shore of Lake Constance, which is near the Black Forest and the border of Switzerland and Austria.

For more information on the meeting, contact Dr. Gernot Göz, president of the scientific congress, at gernot.goez@med.uni-tuebingen.de. The Web-site address for the German Orthodontic Society is www.kfo.uni-duesseldorf.de/DGKFO.

The German Orthodontic Society held its 73rd Annual Scientific Congress in September 2000 in Düsseldorf, Germany. More than 1,200 colleagues from Germany and abroad attended. The society presented the annual awards for the best 1999 articles in the Journal of Orofacial Orthopedics/Fortschritte der Kieferorthopädie. Dr. Bernd Zimmer of Kassel won an award for his paper "Systemic Decalcification Prophylaxis During Treatment With Fixed Appliances." Drs. Charlotte Opitz, Beate Meier, Christian Stoll and Dietrich Subklew won an award for the paper "Radiographic Evaluation of the Transplant Bone Height in Patients With Clefts of the Lip/Alveolus/Palate After Secondary Bone Grafting." The awards for best poster demonstrations were given to teams from the orthodontic departments at the universities in Berlin, Charité, Bonn, Tübingen, Berlin FU and Greifswald.

The current officers of the German Orthodontic Society are Dr. Peter Schopf, president; Dr. Eberhardt Saetzler, vice president; Dr. Ulrich Fellner, secretary; Dr. Siegfried Hensel, vice secretary; and Dr. Gernot Göz, treasurer.