Jackson in 1962 and I've been doing pediatric dentistry in Jackson since then. During the early days of my practice, I realized that there is more to pediatric dentistry than just fill-ing teeth. I was interested in the growth of the child and, frankly, I was interested in pretty faces. I was not happy with the orthodontic trend at that time of taking out four bicus-pids if the child was a little bit crowded. I felt like there had to be a better way to treat this problem. I started using removable appliances, but so much depended upon patient cooperation. If you get a great patient, you get great results, but if you don't have a great patient, then you are not going to get good results. My good friend, Charlie Wilkinson in Memphis, called me one day and said, "You've got to take this orthodontic course that Dr. Morris Goldberg is teaching." At that time, I was looking for something better than what I had been practicing because I was determined that we weren't going to continue to take out teeth. In addition, I wasn't happy with removable appliances. So, I followed Charlie's advice and we took the course from Dr. Goldberg together. We learned his non-extraction technique and I saw that this technique philosophy presented a whole different world. It was fun to do, and it was great to see children’s faces change for the better right in front of us. This is especially wonderful when you start with a child that you think is very crowded and you finish treatment with enough room for every tooth in the arch. I tell my parents that I don't know what is going to happen to their child in their 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's, but I want them to have as many teeth as possible for whatever challenges face them in the future. I joined the AOS and I took Bob Gerety's beginners’ course, which opened another avenue of treatment. Next, I took Lenny Carapezza's course which provided more insight into growth and development and paved the way for more orthodontic courses. It's just been a great trip and now I'm in the twilight of my practice. I'm 83 years old, will be 84 in July and plan to retire from practice in March of 2019. It's still fun and I love seeing these children and I love seeing them develop. So that's my story. It hasn't always been easy. I received a lot of criticism from orthodontists when I first started practicing orthodontics. In fact, they filed a complaint against me, and I had to appear before the Mississippi State Board of Dental Examiners. The orthodontists maintained that if you're a pediatric dentist, you cannot do orthodontics. The president of the Board was an orthodontist and, after a very frank and heated discussion where I presented the fact that pediatric dentistry is the only specialty regulated by age and not by procedure, I had the audacity to walk out of the meeting. The orthodontic community in Mississippi was really against me when I started practicing orthodontics. I called each orthodontist on the phone and said, "Pediatric dentistry and orthodontics need to work together more than any other group in dentistry." Without exception, they would just hang up the phone on me. This went on for two years until finally, the leader of the opposition, Bob Parkes, called my on the telephone early one Sunday afternoon and said that he had to come talk to me right then. Bob came over to our home and said, "Heber, Jesus has got me by the throat. I can't even look at myself in the mirror anymore. And I want to apolo-gize for the way I've treated you. I hope we can be friends." I said, "Bob, we never stopped being friends." He replied, "What can I do to make it up to you?" I replied: " First, you can with-draw that letter of complaint to the State Board of Dental Examiners because I've done nothing wrong. Second, allow me to talk to the Mississippi Orthodontic Society, when they meet next month at the state dental meeting." Bob Parks was a man of his word and made both requests become realities. The letter of complaint to the State Board was withdrawn and I spoke to the Mississippi Orthodontic group when they met. When I stood up to address that group, I honestly felt like Daniel walking into the lion's den. Dr. Ed Gonzalez: I'll bet you did. Dr. Heber Simmons: I walked in and I told them exactly why I was treating non-extraction. I said: "I do not agree with taking four bicuspids out on anybody that's a little bit crowded because I've seen how you can develop the arches and you can make room for all the teeth. Personally, I like full faces rather than flat faces”. I had been to several orthodon-tic labs and I had seen what was coming out of some of the orthodontic offices and I knew my results were better. Then I presented them an offer: "I'll make an agreement with all of you. I'll take the first 10 cases that I've treated, and present the before and after models, photographs, radiographs and whatever you need, and I will let you pick any 10 cases that you want. We will send all of those cases to the head of an orthodontic department that we both can agree on and ask that the cases be judged. If I wind up last in the judging, I’ll never put another bracket on another tooth”. Naturally, they all smiled at that deal until I added: “However, whoever winds up last can't put a bracket on either”. Their answer was: "Oh, no that's not going to happen, we can't do that." I answered: “Well, If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander." Since then we have developed a great relationship and I enjoy working with several orthodontic offices today. I'm very pleased with that because we work together for the good of the children. I don't treat every single case that comes my way because sometimes I feel an orthodontist may be better equipped to treat a certain case. With every single case that we present, I tell the parents at the consultation appointment: "We encourage our patients to get second opinions and if you'd like to take all of these records and get a second opinion, I'll be delighted to give you everything you will need." And I've had dentists, say to me: "You don't really do that, do you?" And I explain that is the way we treat our patients. We try to treat everybody like they are family. About 90% of the people that we present a case to say:” Oh, I don't want to go anywhere else”. And the other 10% will ask for records to get that second opinion for one reason or another. Yet, over the years we've kept track of those that took their records and went for a second opinion somewhere else and about 90% of those people have come back to be treated by us. If you're not worried about who does the treatment and you just want to make sure the patient receives the best possible care, I think you're on the right track. I would encourage all www.orthodontics.com Spring 2019 27
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Spring 2019: Page 27
