British Orthodontic Society strives to enhance the specialty of orthodontics throughout the United Kingdom
Society is involved in negotiations with the Department of Health; General Dental Council now has a UK specialist register in orthodontics

The first two years of the new millennium have seen significant advances for British orthodontics. The General Dental Council (GDC) now has a UK specialist register in orthodontics that is comprised of almost 1,000 names. The public can access this register online at http://www.gdc-uk.org. The GDC has also accepted the case for establishing orthodontic therapists who can undertake intraoral work under supervision. A national curriculum has been drawn up, and, as the WFO Gazette was going to press, was due to receive final approval from the GDC in November 2001.

Much of the past year has been taken up in negotiations with the Department of Health over future funding and provision of National Health Service (NHS) orthodontic care (state-funded care). This followed the publication of the new dental strategy "Modernising NHS Dentistry" in September 2000 (see http://www.doh.gov.uk/dental/strategy/). The government's concern is the increasing cost of NHS orthodontic treatment, which has doubled in the past five years and now stands at almost £100M per annum. This rapid increase reflects the change from removable to fixed appliances in the past 10 years. (The majority of UK orthodontics is now carried out by specialists who use two arch fixed appliances.) One of the unexpected results of this change has been a public realization that even minor malocclusions can be improved by such means, but it is accepted within the profession that the National Health Service should not pay for minor cosmetic treatment. As a result, it has been difficult to find an objective means of determining which patients should benefit from state-funded treatment and which must pay. For almost 10 years now, the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (Brook and Shaw, Europ J Ortho 1989; 11:309-320) has been used in hospital orthodontic departments (the Hospital Service) to restrict NHS treatment to the most serious cases, and the Department of Health is keen to see this measure introduced into the practice-based General Dental Service where more than 70 percent of NHS orthodontic treatment is carried out. It is significant that this is the first time that the British Orthodontic Society (BOS) has been involved in such negotiations. These negotiations had formerly taken place between the Department of Health and the British Dental Association. This change reflects the growing stature of the unified BOS.
In addition to negotiating terms of treatment, the BOS has recently purchased its own headquarters and will be spending significant resources on refurbishing these premises in the coming year.

The BOS also held its 16th British Orthodontic Conference in Harrogate in October 2001. The Society convened in the Conference Centre where the first unified BOS Council met on October 2, 1984. During the conference, the newly created British Orthodontic Foundation presented the first research awards. In addition, for the first time, both the WFO and European Federation of Orthodontics (FEO) were represented at the conference. The meeting was also marked with sadness because of the passing of Dr. David DiBiase, who played a key role in the unification of the BOS. Dr. DiBiase died earlier this year. His widow, Moira, was able to attend the conference to receive the Ballard Medal, which had been awarded to Dr. DiBiase shortly before he died. This award recognizes his outstanding contributions to British orthodontics.