院長日誌

The SIDO – ORTEC Conjunction International Congress was held in Rome on Nov. 5-7th.
( SIDO: Societa Italiana Di Ortodonzia, ORTEC: Tecnici Ortodontisti Italiani)
I was invited by the congress to be a guest speaker, so I headed to Rome right after the conclusion of the JLOA meeting in Tokyo.
 

 
 
I want to thank to Mr. Stefano Della Vecchia, Editor of ORTEC, for giving me the great opportunity to speak at this wonderful congress.
He had been working for one of a Lingual Orthodontists in Rome for many years, and opened his own laboratory office in Rome.
 
I do not remember when I met him for the first time, but I am sure that it was more than 10 years ago.
When the ESLO meeting in Berlin was held on 2002, he had already offered me to hold a laboratory course in Italy; however, I had been prolonged it because of my constant overwork in my practice.
 
Whenever I met him, he always offered me to come to Rome, over and over.
Finally, I decided to accept his invitation.
 

 

Nov. 4th.
When I arrived at Rome International Airport, I easily found one of Stefano’s friends who had come to Fiumicino just to pick me up.
 

In spite of heavy rain, he drove his Audi fast, and later I learned that he was a Rally Driver.
 

During my stay in Rome, the congress reserved a room at the Cavalieri Hilton for me.
Since I am a gold member of Hilton, they upgraded my room without any additional charges, and let me use the Executive Lounge, Spa, Fitness club and Breakfasts for free.
 

It was very nice hotel, located in the middle hill, with a whole city view of Rome.
 

Nov. 5th.
Next day, I didn’t have anything scheduled, so I looked around the city.
 

Musei Vaticani
 

Castel S. Angelo
 

I enjoyed a lunch at “Est! Est! Est!”, which is my favorite Italian restaurant, close to Termini.
 
After the lunch, I visited the Auditorium to see Dr. Giuseppe Marra, Dr. Federico Dolci and Stefano.
These two doctors would translate my lecture almost simultaneously.
I showed them my presentations, and went back to the Cavalieri.
 

Nov. 6th.

This is the venue, Auditorium Parco della Musica.
 

The congress was very crowded because SIDO is the biggest one in Italy, similar to JOS meeting in Japan.
 

This is the room “Sala Petrassi” that I spoke.
30 minutes before my turn.
 

Taking pictures with “Italian cutes” before my lecture.
 
The time allocated for my presentation was the entire morning of the last day, i.e. 9:15 to 12:30.
I think everyone may think that a 3 hours lecture is quite long, however, it was only 3 hours because there were so many topics that I had to talk about, such as “ Unwelcome Rumor About Lingual treatment”.
 

 
Following my brief introduction, I introduced clinical cases treated with several appliance such as Kurz, Creekmore, Lingual SWA, the first attempt of my original brackets, the most resent Hirobrackets, low teen case treated with Hirobrackets, STb, Incognito, and the case treated without brackets.
 
After the clinical cases, I discussed about the situations of Dentists and Orthodontists in Japan, as I wrote in my blog about JLOA meeting.
Then I explained the laboratory procedure of Hiro technique in detail.
 
This is a schema of most resent Hiro technique.
It is easy to make, not requiring any special tools or equipments.

 

Close up of the Hiro technique.
Because of Fermit’s elasticity, removal of resin cores after cure is quite easy for the current Hiro technique.
 

This is a bad example.
The Core is cut and the shoulders are lost (Red circle).
It looks quite small difference, however, big difference in clinical use.
Cores are no longer stable on the teeth.
Even such small changes spoil the preciseness of Resin cores, and it is clear that if the cores don’t cover the Incisal edges or Occlusal surfaces, the most important parts for bracket placement, they can not provide precise bonding.
 
Currently so many “Modified Hiro system” are used around the world, but I am sorry that most of them require quite complicated laboratory works with high cost, just for the purpose of making rebonding possible.
In my practice, the average frequency of broken brackets is less than 4 times for each patients throughout her/his two years treatment, therefore spending too much time and costs are “A waste” .
 

These are well known pictures of Hiro technique but they are modified.
I have tried all of them but they are quite different from Original one.
Compared with original cores, a lot of advantages are spoiled, especially for the Blue Core.
It is made with Band Lok, and is so hard that we can not remove the cores after bonding brackets.
Thermo-Grue core is thick, not good for crowding cases, and the material is not medical nor dental, .
 
During my presentation, one of the congress attendants activated the fire alarm in order to disturb my lecture.
Fortunately I had no problems for my lecture, and Budda knows who did it.
 
After the 15 minutes coffee break, I introduced the movie of bonding procedure.
 
For my concluding remarks, I emphasized that the Laboratory works play quite important roles in Lingual Orthodontics.
We need Dental technicians, and they need us, too.
Some Lingual Orthodontists recommend bonding brackets directly for easy case, but I never agree with this opinion.
We must remember why the “Bottomed out” after few years of Lingual’s sensational Debut was happened in the in the States.
 

When the congress was over, Stefano took me to a nice Italian restaurant for lunch.
The owner was his friend, and they made Gnocchi specially just for me.
It was so nice, and I will never forget the taste.
The owner was a handsome guy, like a movie star, and I had a quite enjoyable time with Stefano, Giuseppe and Federico.
 
After the Lunch, we walked to Piazza della Trinita dei Monti, and we met Dr. Lorenzo Favero and his son incidentally.

 

Nov.7th.

Just before checking out, Stefano came to Hilton with his wife.
 

Again I want to thank Stefano, all of my friends, Orthodontists and Dental Technicians who came to my room and listened to my presentations.
As I said in my presentation, I welcome all of you to visit my office to master the Laboratory procedures of the Hiro technique.
Please remember that using Hiro technique is free to everyone, and it is not necessary to pay anyone, including myself.
If you want to come, please do not hesitate to contact me.
 
I hope to see you again.