“Apart from my family, nothing gets me out of bed in the morning like the smile — or sometimes the tears — of a grateful patient.”
— Dr. Claudiu Coca
Orthodontist in Bucharest. Since 2016 I have been teaching the method I named Biology First Orthodontics: the face, growth and biology before the appliance.
NIGHT — the problem
Your child mouth-breathes in their sleep. The teeth don't seem to have room. Are braces too early — or too late? And what will it actually cost? At night, a parent's questions look bigger than they are.
For a long time, orthodontics started straight at the appliance. Here it starts differently: first the face, then growth, then biology — and only at the very end, the wire.
FIRST LIGHT — the method
Biology First Orthodontics means reading the breathing, the tongue, the muscles and the direction of growth first — and only then choosing the appliance. Sometimes the best appliance is the simplest one. Sometimes the best treatment starts with no appliance at all.
The method carries an English name because it is taught to orthodontists across several countries — but it was born on the chair in the practice, in Bucharest.
- The face what we see
- Growth where it is heading
- Biology what sustains it
- The appliance only at the end
DAWN — the fork
Two audiences, one dawn — choose your side of the light.
In the chair
Before the patient — because this is where it begins.
On stage
Before colleagues — because nothing teaches you better.
Two places. The same person.
What I write
Articles — no universal truths claimed
Reflections and cases, noted down over the years. Not universal truths — just what I believe, at the time of writing.
Read more →My patient
How I work
The Damon philosophy, myofunctional therapy and respect for the patient's biology. The same care I would give my own child — for every patient.
Read more →Latest event · 29.05.2026
Damon Ultima Mastery
Budapest · 2 days
Elevate Your Practice
See details →Speaker
What I focus on
The topics that keep bringing me back to the microphone: biomechanics, muscles, breathing, craniofacial development.
Read more →Topics I keep returning to
More than straightening teeth
Orthodontics doesn't end at the teeth: it meets breathing, swallowing, sleep, posture and joint function — and that's where the real cause often lives.
Myofunctional therapy
The teeth and jawbones live among more than 20 pairs of muscles. Re-educating muscle behaviour — swallowing, tongue posture, breathing — is, as I understand it, where orthodontics should start.
Read more →
Bruxism
Clenching and grinding overload the entire dento-maxillary apparatus. In my experience a splint alone does not change the muscle behaviour — and muscles, if you keep using them, rebuild.
Read more →
Breathing
Nose breathing versus mouth breathing: sleep, orofacial development, oxygenation — the differences are big. I believe any orthodontic treatment should start with nose breathing.
Read more →
TMJ disorders
The joint in front of the ear rarely makes it into the diagnosis, yet its overload can be felt: clicking, pain, limited mouth opening. What does a balanced joint actually mean?
Read more →Damon Clear and Damon Ultima — the history and lessons of a case with a 29 ABO score
Severe Class III, 15 mm of crowding, an anterior open bite — treated without extractions, with low forces and myofunctional therapy for stability. The case that illustrates what I call Biology First: the patient's biology before the mechanics.
Personal note
One of my learning-experience cases. It took 67 months — with today's experience, I believe a similar case could be done in 2.5–3 years.
Author
Dr. Claudiu Coca
Drag to compare
Two places. One man. And a third, after the lights go out.
I learned to code in high school. In the mid-'90s, as a dental student, I wrote the first version of a practice-management program in FoxPro — for my father's dental clinic. I rewrote it every time the tools changed: dBase IV, then MS Access, then the web.
Three decades later I'm a practising orthodontist, and that same software still supports my work every single day. It's called Xalyra now: a practice-management platform with a patient portal, built by a doctor, for doctors — and available to any dental practice.
Meet Xalyra ↗-
FoxPro
1996 · for my father's clinic
-
dBase IV
rewritten, same idea
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MS Access
rewritten once more
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Xalyra
2026 · the web version, open to everyone
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