History

Foundation of the Department

The Clinical Department of Orthodontics has been part of the Center for Dental, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine at Hannover Medical School (MHH) since 1973. Today, the Center for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery comprises the Clinical Departments of Orthodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Prosthodontics and Biomedical Materials Science as well as Conservative Dentistry, Periodontology and Preventive Dentistry.

An outline of the history

Hannover Medical School was founded in 1961. In June 1961, the Science Council recommended the founding of seven new medical academies.

In December 1961, the founding committee for a Hannover Medical Academy met. On April 1, 1963, a decree was issued by the state government to establish a Hannover Medical Academy - later to become the MHH. The MHH was officially opened on May 17, 1965. In the summer semester of 1965, teaching began for the study of medicine, initially in the Oststadt Hospital. At the same time, the first construction phase of the new hospital on Karl-Wiechert-Allee took place.

By 1978, the new central hospital had been built on an area of around 400,000 square meters. The site also houses the Center for Dental, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine, research and teaching buildings, the library, buildings for various services, residential buildings and sports facilities. The Women's Clinic and the "Rudolf Pichlmayr" Transplantation Research Center have been located there since June 2004, and the Clinical Department for Plastic, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery has also been on the site since January 2006. Two of the university's Clinical Departments are housed in other hospitals in Hanover: Orthopaedics (in the Annastift) and Dermatology (in the Linden Dermatology Clinic). It has been possible to study dentistry at the MHH since the summer semester of 1969. At its first meeting in December 1961, the founding committee of the MHH already envisaged a chair for dentistry. However, it did not consider this aspect to be an urgent matter. Therefore, in December 1965 and March 1966, it postponed the decision to establish a chair for one year. In March 1966, Dr. H. Senge, President of the Lower Saxony Dental Association at the time, was very concerned about the critical situation and asked the founding committee to give priority to dentistry.

After the Dental Association had agreed to rent rooms for the university and set up a laboratory, the Senate of the MHH decided to make provision for the study of dentistry from the summer semester of 1969 and to advertise a chair. In 1969, the Minister of Education appointed Priv.-Doz. Dr. T. Jung from Bonn to the newly created Chair of Dental Prosthodontics in 1969, making it possible to study dentistry at the MHH from the summer semester of 1969.

Before the start of the 1971/1972 winter semester, the first outpatient clinic for dental, oral and maxillofacial diseases was opened in the MHH research center at the Oststadt Hospital. It was not until the end of the 1976 summer semester that it moved to the newly built Clinical Department of the Center for Dental, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine on the grounds of the Central Hospital.

In the summer of 1971, Prof. Dr. Dr. D. Schlegel from Munich accepted the appointment to the Chair of Dental Surgery / Maxillofacial Surgery, followed by Prof. Dr. Dr. F. Schmidt (acting), Prof. Dr. Dr. J.-E. Hausamen and Prof. Dr. Dr. N.-C. Gellrich.

The Chair of Restorative Dentistry and Periodontology was filled in April 1971 with the appointment of Prof. Dr. H. Triadan from Bern, followed by Prof. Dr. Dr. W. Geurtsen. Prof. Dr. Jung was succeeded by Prof. Dr. A. Roßbach and Professor Dr. M. Stiesch.

Chair holders

In 1972 and 1973, Dr. I. Janson, later Director of the Polyclinic for Orthodontics at the Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital in Munich, received a teaching assignment and represented the interests of orthodontics provisionally at the MHH.

Prof. Dr. J. Tränkmann, who had been appointed from Homburg (Saar) to the newly established Chair of Orthodontics, took up his post on September 1, 1973. As the first appointee, he played a key role in establishing the newly founded Department and had a decisive influence on teaching, research and patient care from 1973 to 2001.

He made it clear that developmental processes of the facial skull, jaws and dentition are the basis of the discipline. His scientific interests focused on the plate appliance and myofunctional therapy. In addition to these main areas of work, his work on the early orthodontic treatment of patients with continuous cleft lip and palate should be mentioned, in which he not only pointed out the necessity of preoperative plate treatment, but also the need for consistent further therapy in the dentition of the first dentition. For many years, he was also involved in the dental technical production of orthodontic appliances and introduced many technical improvements; a commitment that was honored in 1999 with the award of honorary membership of the Society for Orthodontic Dental Technology.

His scientific activities include over 160 scientific publications and numerous book contributions as well as well over 200 scientific lectures. At university level, he was for many years chairman of the committee for the dental examination and chairman of a doctoral committee for the award of a doctorate in dentistry at the MHH. Under the rectorship of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. H. Hundeshagen and Prof. Dr. E. Schmidt, he was a member of the MHH Senate for four years. In the course of his 28 years of clinical work, he has trained over 170 dentists from Germany and abroad to become specialists in orthodontics.

In 2001 and 2002, Priv.-Doz. Dr. J.A. Lisson, who later became Director of the Clinical Department of Orthodontics at Saarland University in Homburg (Saar), was put in charge of the clinic on an interim basis.

Prof. Dr. R. Schwestka-Polly has been the Director of the Clinical Department of Orthodontics since 2002. He was Chairman of the Dental Examination Committee at the MHH from 2002 to 2004 and has been Chairman of a doctoral committee for obtaining a doctorate in dentistry at the MHH since 2003. He was a member of a section of the Senate of the MHH from 2003 to 2005 and has been a member again since 2007. In 2003, he was elected to the advisory board of the "German Board of Orthodontics and Orofacial Orthopedics", an institution for ensuring continuous further training and quality assurance in treatment in the field of orthodontics, has been a "Diplomate of the German Board of Orthodontics and Orofacial Orthopedics" since 2005 and has been chairman of the advisory board of the "German Board of Orthodontics and Orofacial Orthopedics" since 2007. From 2003 to 2005 he was Dean of Studies in Dentistry at the MHH and from 2005 to 2007 Managing Director of the Center for Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine at the MHH.

Since 2006, he has also been offering the continuing education and part-time study programmes "Lingual Orthodontics" with the degree "Master of Science". This is aimed at specialist dentists with a doctorate in orthodontics, lasts four semesters and concludes with a Master's thesis. The clinical director of this study programme is Prof. Dr. D. Wiechmann, who is the developer of an individual lingual appliance and a part-time member of the Clinical Department of Orthodontics at the MHH, Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong since 2006 and Honorary Member of the German Society for Lingual Orthodontics since 2007. The study programs are profile-defining for the MHH.

Clinical and scientific focus (past and present)

The Clinical Department of Orthodontics employs five orthodontic colleagues in full-time positions, four in part-time positions, one dentistry didact, two dental technicians and nine non-scientific staff.

The goal of treatment in the Clinical Department is prevention- and quality-oriented orthodontics. Around 800 patients receive orthodontic treatment each year.

The main task of orthodontics is the early detection and treatment of misaligned teeth and jaws. In terms of interdisciplinary tasks, orthodontics sees itself as a partner to the other three specialist disciplines of dentistry and also as a partner to various medical disciplines. One example of this is the complex rehabilitation of patients with cleft lip and palate at the Interdisciplinary Center for Facial Malformations.

It also includes a "cell regeneration" project with cell and molecular-biological studies on bone replacement in the sense of cell-based regenerative medicine (particularly in cleft lip and palate and when teeth move into the cleft area). Other key areas of research are "biomaterials" and "3D imaging". These projects are carried out in cooperation with all Clinical Departments of the Center for Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine and Clinical Departments and Institutions of Medicine as well as other Facilities or Institutions in Hannover.

Within the framework of research and teaching, in 2001 Priv.-Doz. Dr. J.A. Lisson and in 2005 Priv.-Doz. Dr. Dr. O. Bauß successfully completed the habilitation process and were awarded the venia legendi.

Following the establishment of a quality management system, the Clinical Department of Orthodontics was certified according to DIN EN 9001:2000 for patient care, research and teaching in 2008.