From Improving Egos to Perfecting Smiles: Orthodontics and Psychology, 1945-2000

From World War II to the end of 20^th century, the types of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment and their reasons for doing so changed significantly. In the 1950s and 1960s, Canadian parents were told that orthodontics would "cure" inferiority complexes and protect children with crooked teeth, especially girls, from a life of delinquency and missed opportunities. By the last two decades of the 20^th century, the consumer health movement and rising incomes empowered patients to decide which treatments were right for them, and an increasing number of adult patients sought orthodontic treatment to improve their appearance. Orthodontists never abandoned their claim that orthodontic treatment could improve psychological health, as while health psychologists and other researchers increasingly called this into question. But orthodontists did begin to place greater emphasis on aesthetics as a reason for treatment, and orthodontics became part of a much larger explosion in "cosmetic dentistry" procedures that came to include tooth whitening and veneers.