Letter_6_2_1
Laudatio to the ,,Iron Lady
Letters
of Orthodontics” Professor
Birthe Melsen
Birthe Melsen, one of the most recognized and respected
Orthodontists, was born in Aabenraa, Denmark in 1939. She received
her Dental Degree in 1964 from Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark.
Melsen began her ascending road with obtaining the orthodontics
specialty in the year of 1971 and received her orthodontic certificate in
1974 from Royal Dental College.
Her complex academic activity was accomplished with abnegation
and dedication, over the course of decades dedicated to study and
scientific creation. She has been a full professor since 1975, and
between 1975 and 2012 she was Head of Department of Orthodontics
at the School of Dentistry, Aarhus University, Denmark. Since 1986, she
has been working part-time in a private practice in Lübeck, Germany
(Adult Orthodontics only).
The intense research activity, her passion and organizational capabilities, have brought her many
leadership positions over the years, in different scientific societies.
Writing about professor Melsen is a more difficult task than it seems, One can say a lot about her
impressive and complex activity and also about the multiple sides of her defining personality, but
we must summarize the vast information that we possess.
A remarcable university specialist and reputed scientist, professor Birthe Melsen is also actively
involved in philanthropic causes, since 1989 fundraising for third world children, especially in South
America, where she lectures to generate money for the unprivileged children, and also regularly
donating for several Children Organisations.
The leadership positions
1976 - President, Scandinavian Orthodontic Society; 1984 - President, Nordic Orthodontic Society;
1988 - President, Danish Orthodontic Society; 1989 – President, Third International Symposium
on Dentofacial Development, Aarhus, Denmark; 1990 Vice-president, European Orthodontic
Society Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark; 1993-96 Vice-president of International Symposium
on Comprehensive Management of Craniofacial Anomalies; 1994-97 President of the Danish
Orthodontic Society; 1994- Associate Editor of Orthodontics and Craniofacial Research; In 2000
she received the “Knighthood of Dannebrog 1st degree”, the highest possible award for University
affiliated researchers. In 2004 he was elected President of the European Orthodontic Society.
She has supervised 18 Phd theses and advised for research projects in Australia, Brazil, Italy and
Thailand. She has, since 1975, been a regular lecturer at a large number of the postgraduate
programs in the US and South America and during the last decenium also in Australia and various
Asian countries. She is a regular member of The Angle Society and an international member of the
American Association of Orthodontics and the World Society of Orthodontics.
Stomatology Edu Journal 87
The scientist
Letters
Professor Melsen has made significant contributions in the field of orthodontics with her research.
She has authored more than 380 publications in the fields of growth and development based on
research on human autopsy material, bone biology and clinical implant studies.
Her entire activity was oriented in three major directions all with profound practical implications:
Skeletal Anchorage- Mini-Implants: Where Are We? In 2005 Birthe Melsen said ‘’In my opinion,
skeletal anchorage is clearly not a replacement for other proven anchorage systems. Skeletal
anchorage should serve merely to expand the orthodontic services we can offer our patients”
An innovation that professor Birthe Melsen introduced and developed was the Aarhus System.
These miniscrews yield a perfect balance of sizing, strength and working diameter for maximum
clinical application. The system has an excellent one-dimensional control through button head
screws, ideal for elastic chains and NiTi spring applications, and two-dimensional control accepting
wires, hooks, lever arms and other auxiliaries.
Virtual Imaging
Professor Melsen’s "3-D occlusogram" software, as suggested by Fiorelli and Melsen, was
determined to develop a user-friendly software which in addition to the advantages mentioned by
Marcotte can also provide the bases for the computerized appliance design.
Adult Orthodontic Treatment
She has published a textbook called Adult Orthodontics in 2012 and has made significant
contributions in the field of orthodontics with her research, publishing many papers in different
scientific journals. This is a major new work dedicated to the increasingly prominent area of adult
orthodontics. The opening chapters provide the context for adult orthodontics, including patient
demographics and a etiology, and the book goes on to detail treatment planning considerations,
including patient case profiles, suggesting initial outcomes and longer term expectations.
After having lectured for so many years about biomechanics, and after working together for more
than 20 years on the “Biomechanics in Orthodontics” software, professor Melsen and dr. Fiorelli
have decided to undertake a new challenge of teaching the “real” biomechanics in five weeks
of hard work. In 2013, professor Melsen started alongside dr. Giorgio Fiorelli, The Orthodontic
Biomechanics Summer School, with the 1st edition in Arezzo, and then went on yearly in Viareggio
and Lido di Camaiore.
From 2006 she is Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics.
Over the last few years I have had the chance and the joy of getting to know her more closely,
discussing at different international congresses either in France, at the FFO Congress where we
discussed about the next two meetings scheduled in Romania for AREO members, or in America
during the meeting of the AAO ambassadors, where we had the pleasure to work together, along
with other big names from the orthodontic world, at the working meeting of the WIOA advisors for
the preparation of the WIOC 2019 congress, which will be held in Bucharest from October 23-26,
the second time after many years in Europe again.
As of 9 June 2019, Birthe Melsen is 80 years old.
Happy birthday dear lady Birthe Melsen!
Irina Nicoleta Zetu, DDS, PhD, Dr.-Habil.
Professor and Chair
Division of Orthodontics
"Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iași, Iași, Romania
Editor of Stomatology Edu Journal
DOI: https://doi.org.10.25241/stomaeduj.2019.6(2).letter.1
88 Stoma Edu J. 2019;6(2): 87-88. http://www.stomaeduj.com