More than a decade in the making, the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF) Craniofacial Growth Legacy Collection is now completed and available online for orthodontists, residents, and academics. Nine of the 11 known collections of longitudinal craniofacial growth records in the U.S. and Canada have been joined together to create this collection of images of untreated orthodontic cases.
"The materials they contain are literally irreplaceable and provide a control group that we will never be able to attain again," stated St. Louis orthodontist Jeff Cavanaugh, DDS, and long-term AAOF volunteer leader and member of the oversight committee, in a release. "These collections represent the work of hundreds of investigators. They have been gathered, cataloged, and studied over a period of more than 75 years."
Each of the collections is independent from the others and has pursued its own sampling and data collection strategies. Taken together, these different and complementary strategies have produced a rich longitudinal record of craniofacial development among children who did not receive orthodontic treatment, according to the AAOF.
"Many children were reviewed from ages 2 to 3 throughout early adulthood as part of university studies at least once a year, and some more frequently," Dr. Cavanaugh said. "Current medical standards no longer enable us to capture this type of data, which is why these collections are so important."
"As some cases are still being added, this site is a continually developing resource for orthodontic teaching and research," said Robert Bray, DDS, president of the AAOF, in the release. "The goal of the AAOF is to help fund academic research, and we feel this repository for longitudinal records of all types with sufficient numerical documentation will facilitate study for years to come."
