Edward H. Angle
Edward H. Angle has been credited with putting orthodontics on a scientific basis and with making orthodontics an independent speciality of the dental profession.
He was born in 1855 in Pennsylvania, USA. He apprenticed with a local dentist in 1874 and attended the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia from 1876-1878 where his interest in orthodontia started to develop. After suffering from a serious respiratory illness and 2 years in an ill fated sheep ranching business Angle returned to dentistry. He joined the Dental Department of the Minnesota Hospital College as a professor of histology and lecturer on comparative anatomy and orthodontia while continuing his dental private practice.
On 8 September 1887 he presented his Angle System of Regulating Appliances at the 9th International Medical Congress. The publication of this paper in an 1887 textbook by Loomis P. Haskell was considered the first edition of his book, which was published in seven repeatedly revised editions until 1907.
In 1892 Angle resigned from the University of Minnesota to limit his practice exclusively to orthodontia, thus becoming the first specialist in orthodontia. He later returned to teaching and held several positions as professor of orthodontia in several universities until 1899 when he resigned to establish the Angle School of Orthodontia, which opened in 1900.
The School taught Angle’s system of regulation and retention of the teeth. Angle’s article on Classification of Malocclusion had been published in 1899 in Dental Cosmos. In the same year Angle patented the E-Arch, his expansion arch wire mechanism. This was the first in a series of innovative appliances which could be assembled by practitioners from prefabricated elements, including the Pin and Tube appliance (1910), the Ribbon Arch (1916) and the Edgewise appliance (1925).
Angle founded the Society of Orthodontists (later renamed as the American Society of Orthodontists) in 1901.
Selection of Angle components
Professional display case of Angle type clamp bands and arches, wrenches and soldering pliers