The first orthodontic diploma

The advent of the Inter-Collegiate Membership in Orthodontics in the year 2000 will mark the end of an orthodontic diploma specific to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. The Diploma in Dental Orthopaedics (RCPS) was the first orthodontic diploma in the United Kingdom. The fact that such a diploma has existed first as a DDO and latterly as the MDO (Membership) for some 50 years is remarkable in view of the relative infancy of most dental specialties and the fact that the General Dental Council has instigated a specialist register in orthodontics as recently as 1998. It was 1965, before other specialty diplomas became available in the British Isles, with the introduction of the FFD by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.