Development of Craniofacial Orthodontics as a Subspecialty at New York University Medical Center

This is a brief personal history of craniofacial orthodontics as reported by Dr Joseph G. McCarthy, Professor of Plastic Surgery and Director of the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York. He describes early collaborations with research orthodontists who were, at the time, studying the development in patients experiencing severe anomalies of craniofacial growth. From these early collaborations came an appreciation for the role of orthodontists in the interdisciplinary treatment team that was caring for patients with complex craniofacial problems as well as those patients who presented with cleft lip and palate. Both the distraction osteogenesis of the craniofacial skeleton and nasoalveolar molding are clinical innovations that came forth from the close collaboration of surgeon and orthodontist at New York University Medical Center. The story of this collaboration is described with attention to clinical and laboratory research, multidisciplinary team practice, and the development of a Fellowship in Craniofacial Orthodontics. This short history of how a Fellowship in Craniofacial Orthodontics came about at the New York University Langone Medical Center is fitting in its now-timely relationship to the action of the American Dental Association and the American Association of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics to recognize standards for fellowships in Craniofacial and Special Needs Orthodontics.