WFO Executive Committee continues work on international guidelines for orthodontic specialty education programs

There is no single aspect of the specialty of orthodontics more important than the educational process. It is the basis of why we call ourselves orthodontists and the foundation of our organizations. The WFO is continuing to gather information about orthodontic education around the world to find out what similarities and differences exist today. The goal is to develop recommended basic educational guidelines that could be accepted and used internationally.

At this time, we have information from the following countries about their orthodontic specialty curricula: Argentina, Australia, Egypt, Europe (Erasmus), Greece, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The committee welcomes input from as many other countries as possible.

There is substantial agreement on what is important in the educational process, although the length of full-time programs ranges from 24 to 36 months and from 2,600 to 5,200 hours. The subject areas that are generally agreed on are as follows:

  • Clinical treatment: Supervised orthodontic care of patients that includes starting about 50 new patients and finishing others. Patients include young children, teenagers and adults. Students also work with multidisciplinary, craniofacial, active and retention cases.

  • Biomedical Sciences: anatomy, biostatistics, embryology, epidemiology, genetics, growth and development, histology, pathology, physiology and psychology

  • Clinical Sciences: biomechanics, cephalometrics, function/occlusion, orthodontic materials, periodontics, speech pathology, craniofacial rehabilitation and retention/stability

  • Research: research methodology and activity, and literature review

There are many other areas of importance, including the number and qualifications of the faculty and the physical facility for the program.

The committee welcomes your input for this project.
- Dr. Donald Poulton, WFO Committee Chairman
Dr. Poulton may be contacted by fax: +1-415-929-6647.