MEMBER TRIBUTE Three original SWOS instructors. The late Dr. Merle Bean, Dr. Gerber and Dr. Beistle. An everlasting friendship. Two cephalometric gurus: Dr. Beistle with Tom Magill REMEMBERING DR. RICHARD T. BEISTLE: Sassouni Plus Analysis Innovator, Instructor and Friend By Jay W. Gerber, DDS O ur dear colleague and special friend Dr. Richard T. Beistle passed away recently. Dr. Beistle was an amazing teacher who readily shared with all those who would seek his knowledge. If you attended sessions with him, you knew his commitment to education. Dr. Beistle was an instructor that I spent much time with over our 30 years teaching together. He and his wife Jill made numerous trips with us, not just to educate others but to enjoy a special friendship. It was during these times that I discovered a real dedicated friend to all of us in dentistry. We will miss him but not lose the knowledge he shared with our profession. A trained mathematician, he was instrumental in changing the way orthodontics looked at the facial skeletal structure, which made his unique insights into cephalometric diagnosis special. He received his D.D.S. degree from the University of Michigan in 1961. He was a disciple of Drs. Hy Pleasant, John Witzig and Merle Bean. Dr. Beistle was a leader in the use and application for cephalo-metric diagnosis in orthodontics. Dr. Beistle introduced the concept of Sassouni Plus Analysis in the mid-1980s and, since that time, had been an author and popular lecturer on the subject. Remarkably, Dr. Beistle took the original Sassouni Archial Analysis and made it so much more descrip-tive of functional growth, and Sassouni-Plus cephalometric analysis. thus, more useful for diagnosis for orthodontics, airway, posture and TMD. It allowed dentists to easily relate the growth principles of Donald Enlow, PhD and the func-tional orthodontic teachings of John Witzig, DDS. More specifi-cally, Dr. Beistle spent almost 40 years developing and promoting the use of the Sassouni Plus cephalometric analysis along with the concept that the maxilla is the modern-day “diagnostic arch”. It is the “condition” of the maxilla that is the key to facial esthetics, orthodontic diagnosis and TMJ integrity. Additionally, Dr. Beistle was considered a conservative in the area of extraction, believing that most crowding is “illusionary”, caused by dental arch constriction, lingual-version of the dentition, an over closed vertical dimension with mesial migration of posterior segments. Internationally recognized, Dr. Beistle made 100s of personal presentations to dental associations and dental groups. He was most noted for his presentations for SWOS (Dr. Gerber), Functional Horizons, the USDI, the AAFO and others. He recorded several informative Sassouni Plus videos and he was well published in several dental journals including a recent collaboration with myself and Mr. Thomas Magill on “Sassouni Plus” in this Journal . Dr. Beistle is the 2004 recipient of the Dr. C. R. Gerber, Jr. “Excel-lence in Clinical Dentistry Award”, which is an honorary recognition to those that have made major contributions to orthodontic education. 6 Spring 2022 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Spring 2022: Page 6
