Presentation

Orthognathodontics started out as a pioneering discipline
in Italy in the 1950s. Over time, however, through several masters,
namely professors E. Muzi, G. May, and O. Hoffer, it has evolved.
Notching up a series of important milestones - the first Italian study
group in orthodontics (GISO, 1967), the Italian Society of Orthodontics
(SIDO, 1968), the first School of Specialization (Cagliari 1973) followed
by the creation of other postgraduate schools, the creation of university
chairs devoted to the discipline, and advanced courses and masters
degree courses - this field, once led by a few early pioneers, has
come to interest thousands of professionals.
I was fortunate enough to know the first masters
and to witness and appreciate their clinical and scientific work;
I also count myself lucky to have been present in all the different
stages in the formation, development and growth of Italian orthodontics.
After publishing several books and monographs on the subject, I increasingly
felt the need to introduce and develop a series of books on orthognathodontics,
as a means of bringing together in a systematic and coordinated way
the various contributions of the Italian schools of orthodontics.
The character of each of the books in the series is, to different
degrees, monographic, depending on the topic under consideration.
A particular focus has been the iconography, to which
considerable space has been devoted so as to encourage the use of
these texts as atlases and thus also their application in clinical
practice. The concise text is always prepared with absolute scientific
and bibliographic rigor, and adopting a logical and valid clinical
and didactic approach. Since these books, whose aim is to facilitate
learning of this discipline, are readily consultable, the user is
able to get the most from them. Five years ago, to our great satisfaction,
the series passed its “silver” landmark of 25 titles,
thereafter forging on towards new goals that we would hardly have
dared hope for when, back in 1996, we took our first timid steps with
the first volume. This achievement is certainly down to all the Italian
orthodontics schools, which readily supported the initiative and have,
over the years, enriched the series with highly significant and important
monographs; it is also due to the participation of established authors
whose contribution has been critical to the success of this publishing
venture, earning it widespread consensus and satisfaction among readers,
and detailed and appreciative reviews in leading sector journals.
The success of the series has been crowned by the
support of almost all the schools of specialization in Italy’s
private and public universities which, as shown by the list of 13
new titles on the back cover, have undertaken to provide us, over
the next few years, with their best results in their specific research
areas. My efforts will be devoted to raising further the level of
the topics selected, while the task of the publisher will be to further
improve the graphics and layout, always with a view to providing practical
texts, readily useable by the reader, while also guaranteeing exhaustive
treatment of the topics under consideration. Having last year reached
the landmark of 30 titles, with a book looking at the experience of
the prestigious Aahrus school of Prof. Birte Melsen and colleagues,
and in the wake of volume number 31, which deals with 3D imaging,
I am now honoured and very pleased to present, with this new monograph,
the School of the University of Naples Federico II, directed by Prof.
Roberto Martina, which is one of the most valid and dynamic schools,
evolving all the time.
I had the good fortune to get to know Roberto Martina
when he was very young but already following in the footsteps of his
father, a well-known and much esteemed orthodontist and one of the
pioneers of the 1960s, who unfailingly showed great moral and ethical
rigour and was always determined to be abreast of developments. Roberto
inherited his father’s great qualities and from a young age
devoted himself exclusively to orthodontics, attending the first -
and, at the time, the only - Italian postgraduate school of orthodontics
at the University of Cagliari run by Prof. Paolo Falconi, where I
was also a teacher. In 1977, he completed his studies and specialized
with full marks, emerging as a star pupil thanks to his professionalism,
the thoroughness of his research, and the perfect clinical outcomes
of the patients he treated.
I had the honour of supervising his specialization
thesis. He then returned to the University of Naples Federico II,
where he had done his medical training, and there lost no time in
setting up a department of orthodontics which subsequently became
a proper school of specialization. At the same time, his academic
career advanced rapidly as he was appointed first associate professor
and then full professor. His great interest in the study of orthodontics
led him to attend many courses and university clinics abroad, as well
as international congresses, and, at the same time, to create a high-level
clinical and experimental scientific research centre at his clinic.
In recognition of all this, in the 1990s he became, in spite of his
young age, president of the Italian Society of Orthodontics (S.I.D.O.)
and subsequently president of the European Orthodontic Society (E.O.S.).
This period culminated in a memorable international
congress in Sorrento - a meeting of the highest scientific level quality.
Today, the Naples school has a great many pupils who, having benefited
from Roberto Martina’s valuable teaching and guidance, have
gone on to secure important permanent appointments both in universities
and in hospitals; many of them are highly respected professionals
who are still actively involved with the school.
Volume 32 in this series marks a new and important
change: thanks to the farsightedness and courage of our publisher,
Dr Alfredo Martina, the series will, from now on, be printed simultaneously
in English as well as in Italian.
It will therefore now be my task to invite the best
foreign schools to contribute to the series and at the same time to
make the validity of the Italian schools of orthodontics better known
abroad. In the present volume Prof. R. Martina looks at the functional
treatment of class II malocclusions with the Bite Jumping Appliance
(BJA), a technique developed by Prof. Franz Gunter Sander. Thanks
to this technique, it is possible to obtain significant and stable
results in these particular pathological situations. After a chapter
on the choice of functional appliance, the biomechanical and clinical
advantages of the technique are considered, and finally the timing
of the treatment. A large chapter, with a rich iconography, is given
over to the presentation and description of clinical cases.
Two special chapters look at treatments in hyperdivergent
patients or with deep bite. The monograph ends with final considerations
and an extensive bibliography. Prof. R. Martina was assisted by Dr
V. D’Antò and Dr A. Galeotti, head of the departmental
dentistry unit at the Bambin Gesù Hospital in Rome, who verified
the scientific validity of the results. Finally, the descriptions
of the preparation of the appliances were provided by a specialist
laboratory directed by M. Cicatiello (dental technician). This technique,
in addition to the usual occlusal objectives, also allows the achievement
of better aesthetic outcomes. This monograph has many merits, but
I wish to underline two in particular. The first is the care taken
over the diagnosis, in which every available means is used to decide
exactly which type of class II the patient belongs to, with particular
attention also being paid to the aesthetic assessment according to
the Fränkel method, which is very reliable, especially in normo
and hypodivergent cases, and to the careful and precise timing of
the treatment.
The second is the analysis of the biomechanical and
clinical advantages of the BJA. These include, in addition to solidity
of the appliance and ease of reactivation, excellent mandibular propulsion
even in the rest position, and thus the fact that it remains active,
also during the night; another advantage is that it is possible to
avoid using excessive elevations; finally, there is the fact that
the reactive force, unloading on the upper jaw, passes close by the
centre of resistance (key ridge), avoiding forms of maxillary rotation
and mandibular postrotation. Finally, adopting an evidence-based medicine
(EBM) approach, Prof. R. Martina’s school has conducted some
excellent research including an efficient randomized clinical trial
demonstrating the efficacy of BJA treatment. Thanks to the clarity
of the exposition and the presentation of the various clinical steps,
this book is an effective and practical clinical manual and working
tool.
I hope that it will soon be used in the postgraduate
schools and then by all professionals wanting more techniques at their
disposal for dealing with particular diseases. Finally, I wish to
congratulate and, once again, thank Dr Alfredo Martina for his boundless
energy and enthusiasm for his work and for his constant commitment
to further improving this series in its typography and iconography.
I am also grateful for his constant support, encouragement and wisdom,
especially at critical moments and when difficult decisions have to
be made.
Prof. Damaso Caprioglio
Former Director of the Chair of Orthodontics
and Gnathology
Professor of Ethics
University of Parma
Senior Member of the Italian Orthodontic Specialists
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