Thoughts from Belgrade: 10 years of Biology First and lessons for less invasive orthodontics

A world where health becomes a priority

We live in a world that enjoys the full benefits of economic growth: comfort, technology, new horizons. With them, though, come new expectations about the way we want to live.

For years now, health has stayed at the top of our concerns. And as time passes, we understand one simple thing ever more clearly: just as we want a bigger house, a newer car or a better school for our children, it is just as natural to want a state of health that lets us truly enjoy life.

Oral health — part of general health

As a dentist I know well, as do all my colleagues, that oral health is part of general health. It is not an aesthetic detail; it is a central piece of our well-being. We all want healthy teeth for as long as possible and, yes, to like what we see in the mirror.

The road there, however, is not simple. Not for the patient, and not for the doctor.

From Belgrade — reflections on biology and balance

These were the thoughts I brought home the other day from Belgrade, where I had been invited to teach a course for my fellow orthodontists. I presented the experience gathered over more than ten years of applying the Biology First Orthodontics principle — an approach that places the patient's biology at the centre of every therapeutic decision.

I firmly believe that only when we understand in depth how the human body works can we make therapeutic choices that are correct, gentler, less invasive. Modern orthodontics offers us solutions that a decade ago we considered ambitious: treatments without extractions, without aggressive palatal expansion, without surgery — wherever the patient's biology allows it.

Profession, passion, responsibility

Looking at the 20 younger colleagues in the room, I saw myself at my own beginnings — back when orthodontics was not just a specialty but a promise: to become a better doctor, able to treat the person, not just the teeth.

I shared what I have learned, and above all the transformation I lived through once I moved to less invasive methods, such as the Damon Ultima system.

Of the roughly five hundred patients treated on Biology First Orthodontics principles, nearly half have already benefited from the technological advantages brought by Damon Ultima. I was among the first doctors to introduce this technology in Romania, a year before its official launch, and so I saw at the chair, day by day, what biology-guided orthodontics means: more efficient treatments, more comfort, more stable results.

Encounters that inspire

The young doctors at the course wanted to know how to apply these principles, concretely, in their own practices. It was a full day: questions, demonstrations, plenty of enthusiasm. At the end I wished them every success on their professional path.

I returned to Bucharest grateful — and glad to have seen my good friend Dr. Marija Saupe again: ten years ago she was the one telling me about the importance of an orthodontics that respects the patient's biology.

Biology first — always

Looking back, the essence stays the same: whatever the technology, the materials or the trends, biology must always come first. Only by respecting nature can we build results that last — and smiles that speak, beyond aesthetics, of health, confidence and the joy of living.