Orthodontics for adults – current innovations and interdisciplinary possibilities

Introduction: At this point in time, treatment of adult patients is part of the everyday lives of orthodontists. There is no difference when determining the indication for therapy in children and adolescents: the goal is the prevention and treatment of misalignments of jaws and teeth, as well as maintaining a healthy masticatory system. Discussion: Nevertheless, there are some characteristics that need to be taken into consideration: The biomechanics should be adjusted in accordance to the progressing loss of attachment. Simultaneously, there is a great desire for preferably subtle treatment options. Furthermore, interdisciplinary treatment concepts play a more important role in adults compared to children and adolescents. Results: The digitalization in orthodontics resulted in new and innovative therapy options for all these requirements. Generated data records using intraoral scans offer various options in diagnosis as well as planning in order to improve treatments and patient comfort. Special orthodontic software solu-tions were necessary to establish individualized therapy concepts. Treatment appliances with different systems can be printed using the export of STL data and made available for orthodontists. Further advances are expected in the next few years, which makes digital orthodontics an exciting work field. Keywords: 3D-print, CAD/CAM restorations, digital orthodontics, interdisciplinary orthodontics, orthodontics for adults