BOS @ 30

British Orthodontic Society @ 30

2024 is an extremely important year – it marks 30 years since the orthodontic societies in the UK unified to form the British Orthodontic Society (BOS) and this was the starting point for the BOS being recognised nationally and internationally as the voice of orthodontics in the UK.

This timeline illustrates the important events for the Society itself (in purple) and other important events in orthodontics generally (in blue) over the last 30 years. The links also allow you to find out more information about specific aspects of the Society.

As you look at this timeline, please also spend some time thinking about what the next 30 years may hold for orthodontics and for the BOS. If you have ideas, then please contact the BOS office – all members play an important role in the BOS and it is the members’ ideas which continue to enhance the quality of care for our patients.

As we celebrate this great achievement it is also important to reflect on some words by C. D. Stephens OBE (BOS President 2001):

“While it is very appropriate that we celebrate 30 years of a united Society it is sobering, for those of us who were there at the time, to recall when hostility existed between the then 5 UK orthodontic societies………it took twenty years of patient negotiation to accomplish unification. This achievement must continue to be prized and preserved. There will always be differences of opinion within our all-embracing dental membership but is crucial that within an ever-changing political landscape any major sectional differences that we may have within the Society are resolved within its democratic structure and that British orthodontics continues to speak with one voice.”

Please look out for information about the BOS 30th anniversary in the dental press and please join us in celebrating the Society at the BOC in Birmingham in October.