Welcome to The Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists!

The Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists (GLAO) is a constituent of the American Association of Orthodontists. The GLAO advocates on behalf of its members and promotes the value and advancement of the Specialty of Orthodontics. Component organizations of the GLAO include: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Ontario (Canada), and Pennsylvania (west of the Alleghenies).

A Message from The GLAO President...

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who lived around 500 B.C., is quoted as saying “change is the only constant in life.”  Charles Darwin is often quoted as having said that the one who survives is not the strongest, nor the most intelligent, but the one who adapts and changes with the environment.  So how do we adapt to what is coming? How can our specialty continue to grow and succeed?  In my opinion, the answer is treatment customization.  This takes us back to how we started before the preadjusted appliances.  We went from individual bends to move the teeth we want and not the teeth we do not want, to a sometimes more mass-produced one size fits all solution, which became so practical that could almost eliminate the operator.  But it couldn’t and will not, because of the amount of variation that exists in orthodontic treatment and in an orthodontic patient.  Every patient is different, with different needs, different wants, and different situations.  We should not act as technicians and should act as what we are, healthcare providers.  It is the ability to provide customized treatment that will take us to the next level, and the technologies that have been introduced in these past few years are the tools we need to make it happen in an efficient way.  Regardless if you are using fixed appliances or aligners, we now have software and hardware that allows us to have more control of what is happening in our patient’s mouths, and become more efficient than ever before.  And those tools cannot do it alone.  They need our knowledge. Change can be scary, but change can also be exciting.  The GLAO and AAO have a lot of resources to help a practice grow.  These resources are available as never before.  Want to know more? Make sure to attend our joint Annual Session with MASO at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor, Maryland, on September 22-23, 2023.  The program has orthodontists sharing their experiences with new technologies, and how they changed the way they practice.  My final quote is from Winston Churchill who said, to improve is to change, and to be perfect is to change often.  The GLAO is here to show you the possibilities, and to help its members change often, in the right direction.

Respectfully submitted,

Dr. Juan Martin Palomo ([email protected])
2022-23 GLAO President

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