CENTENNIAL SPECIAL ARTICLE
A journal by any other name
Chris Burke, Managing Editor
Seattle, Wash
W
hen Charles V. Mosby and Martin Dewey
launched their new journal in 1915, they
gave it a name that seemed to say it all:
International Journal of Orthodontia. Lest there be
any doubt, they added a subtitle, “A monthly journal
devoted to the advancement of the science of ortho-
dontia.” But in his inaugural editorial, Dewey gave
the journal room to grow, writing that the articles pub-
lished would be “on timely subjects of interest to those
engaged in the practice of orthodontia, dentistry and
its allied specialities.”1 A forward-thinking man, he
also wrote that he would endeavor to “secure contribu-
tions of merit from workers in the field.regardless of
'race, color, or previous conditions of servitude.'” An
unsigned editorial in the same issue concluded that
the Journal was being published “with the hope that
it may benefit humanity, that it may help to increase
human efficiency, and that it may become a factor in
arousing interest in our child-life to such an extent
that malocclusion be given as much attention as is
now bestowed by school inspectors upon adenoids,
eye-strain and mental defects.”2
The specialty was in its infancy, and perhaps the
name fit for a time, but an unsigned editorial in 1919 ex-
plained that times had changed. “In our endeavors to
conduct a journal for the advancement of orthodontia,
we early realized that orthodontia consists of more
than mere regulating appliances, and that it would be
necessary to broaden our scope in order to get articles
bearing on all its phases.”3 To meet the changing times,
a Department of Radiography was being added to the
Journal, followed quickly by a Department of Oral Sur-
gery and Surgical Orthodontia. The writer went on to
note that “when the United States entered the war and
the dental corps was being organized, the men in charge
of the Department of Oral and Plastic Surgery at once
recognized that men who had special orthodontic
training made much better students in oral surgery
Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2015;147:S161-2
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Copyright Ó 2015 by the American Association of Orthodontists.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2015.03.010
courses.” Believing that oral surgery “at the present
time is very much of an outcast,” embraced by neither
medicine nor general dentistry, the editors and publisher
of the Journal made what would be the first of a half-
dozen name changes. It would “henceforth be known
as the International Journal of Orthodontia and Oral
Surgery.”
By 1933, times had changed again. Mosby wrote an
editorial for the January issue in which he explained:
“Since 1915 this Journal has lived to see great changes
take place in dental and economic affairs. It has seen a
complete change in dental education. It has seen the
economic world soar to dizzy heights of prosperity and
then plunge to almost unbelievable depths of
economic despair. It has seen the map of Europe remade
and the diadems of the Romanovs and Hohenzollerns
literally cast into the dust. It has seen a complete revolu-
tion in the attitude of both the dental and the medical
professions toward child life.”4 Editor H. C. Pollock
also weighed in: “Just as medicine at last realized that
a strong, healthy, virile nation depended upon healthy,
properly developed children.so will dentistry in the
not distant future realize that preventive dentistry starts
with the child.”5 With that, the separate departments
of oral surgery and radiography were being dropped,
and the Journal was rechristened International Journal
of Orthodontia and Dentistry for Children.4
Within a few years, however, the pendulum had
swung back. In a 1936 editorial, Mosby wrote that
when the name had been changed 2 years earlier, “the
editorial staff knew that it was an experiment, and the
permanency of the department of dentistry for children
was to depend upon its results.”6 Apparently the results
did not live up to the editors' hopes, and the Journal re-
turned to its earlier name, International Journal of
Orthodontia and Oral Surgery.
Pollock announced 2 changes at once in 1938.7 He
quoted a letter that Professor Price of the Oxford Dictio-
nary staff wrote to the Nomenclature Committee of the
American Association of Orthodontists: “The term ortho-
dontia suggests that it means a flower, a disease, or a city
in Asia. Orthodontics, on the other hand, is neat in
appearance, easy to pronounce, and tells you at once,
S161
S162 Burke

Fig. Journal names through the years: International Journal of Orthodontia, 1915; International Journal
of Orthodontia and Oral Surgery, 1919; International Journal of Orthodontia and Dentistry for Children,
1933; American Journal of Orthodontics and Oral Surgery, 1938; American Journal of Orthodontics,
1948; and American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, 1986.

more or less, what it means.The case of ics is still more
simple. Since the fifteenth century, it has been used in En-
glish to denote a science.” Furthermore, the Journal
wanted to emphasize its close connection to “the newly
formed American Association of Orthodontists.” There-
fore, the new name would be American Journal of Ortho-
dontics and Oral Surgery. A decade later, Pollock dropped
“oral surgery” from the name, and for the next 30 years, it
was simply American Journal of Orthodontics.
In the mid 1970s, talk of another change emerged.
B. F. Dewel wrote an editorial promoting the term den-
tofacial orthopedics because “it more accurately
describes the actual clinical therapies that currently are
being used by orthodontists everywhere.”8 By “every-
where,” he seemed to be casting his eyes toward Europe.
He noted that the French preferred orthop
edie dento-fa-
ciale, and in Germany, it was kieferorthop€ adie (jaw or-
thopedics). In 1980, editor Wayne Watson added “A
journal of dentofacial orthopedics” to the title, and
Tom Graber made it official in 1986: American Journal
of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.
The Journal name has changed over the years, con-
founding reference writers and indexers (Fig). But its
mission remains the same: to publish “meritorious con-
tributions on timely subjects of interest of those
engaged in the practice of orthodontia, dentistry and
its allied specialities.”1
REFERENCES
1. Dewey M. The editorial policy of the journal. Int J Orthod 1915;1:
40-1.
2. No author given. The journal's endeavor. Int J Orthod 1915;1:41.
3. No author given. The International Journal of Orthodontia and Oral
Surgery. Int J Orthod Oral Surg 1919;5:83-5.
4. Mosby CM. 1933 versus 1915. Int J Orthod Dent Child 1933;19:
102-3.
5. Pollock HD. A big move for dentistry. Int J Orthod Dent Child 1933;
19:98-101.
6. Mosby CV. Department of oral surgery. Int J Orthod Oral Surg 1936;
22:89.
7. Pollock HC. American Journal of Orthodontics and Oral Surgery. Am
J Orthod Oral Surg 1938;24:97-8.
8. Dewel BF. Orthodontosie, orthodontics, or dentofacial orthopedics.
Am J Orthod 1976;70:328.

May 2015  Vol 147  Issue 5  Supplement 2 American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics