Percival Raymond Begg AO (10 October 1898 – 18 January 1983) was a professor at the University of Adelaide School of Dentistry and a well known

orthodontist Orthodontics is a dentistry specialty that addresses the diagnosis, prevention, management, and correction of mal-positioned teeth and jaws, and misaligned bite patterns. It may also address the modification of facial growth, known as dentofacial ...

, famous for developing the "Begg technique".''Highest international honour for orthodontics pioneer''
University News & Events, 1 June 2007, University of Adelaide, retrieved 1 Feb 2009. Permanent displays dedicated to the Begg technique can be found in the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

in Washington DC, the Library of the American Dental Association in Chicago, and the PR Begg Museum at the University of Adelaide.

Education

Begg was born in Coolgardie, Australia. His father was an accountant and his mother a business manager. He grew up working at a cattle and sheep farm in South Australia. He and his family moved to Adelaide in 1900, where he was enrolled into Pulteney Grammar School. He attended St. Peter's College where he was a classmate of

Howard Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (24 September 189821 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in ...

. He received his science degree from

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

in 1923. Before he left for the US, Begg at one point drew a sketch of the aboriginal people of Australia and noticed that their incisors were completely worn down. A striking fact he observed was that these aboriginal people had no caries or periodontal disease in their teeth. Begg decided to enroll in

Angle School of Orthodontia Angle School of Orthodontia was the first school of orthodontics in the world, established by Edward Angle in 1899. The school taught its students orthodontics over a period of 3–6 weeks. The school graduated 183 students until it closed in 1927. ...

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

, California in 1924. During his stay in California,

Edward Angle Edward Hartley Angle (June 1, 1855 – August 11, 1930) was an American dentist, widely regarded as "the father of American orthodontics". He was trained as a dentist, but made orthodontics his speciality and dedicated his life to standardizing ...

was developing his Edgewise Appliance after working on the Ribbon arch appliance. Begg and

Fred Ishii Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Rodr ...

of Japan were the first to treat patients with the edgewise appliance in Angle School of Orthodontia. In 1925, Begg sailed back to Australia to work with orthodontics on his own patients in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, South Australia. He also took up a position as professor at the University of Adelaide. He eventually retired from this position in 1964. Begg initially experimented with Edward Angle's non-extraction therapy but without much success. He observed a lot of relapse and treatment results with which he and his patients were not happy. In 1928, he decided to start removing teeth and starting seeing better dental aesthetics in his patients. When he came back from the US, Begg was using a rectangular wire like Angle. However, he made a switch to the round archwire in 1928 and started using that with his brackets. In 1933, he usedribbon arch brackets and round arch wires with lighter forces in an orthodontic treatment. He is known to have developed the "Australian orthodontic wires" in 1940s when he worked with a metallurgist named Arthur J. Wilcock. Begg married in 1928 and eventually had three children.

Begg technique

The Begg technique consists of three stages. The first involves multiple steps such as opening anterior bite, closing anterior spaces, eliminate anterior crowding, correction of rotations, and over-correction of mesio-distal relationship of buccal segments. This technique employs bite opening bends such as the gable bend or anchor bend along with the use of class II elastics. The bite opening bends will produce the intrusion of the frontal incisors either through the translation movement or rotation (tipping) movement. The rotational movement leads to flaring of the teeth as a side effect, which can be controlled by class II elastics preventing the flaring of upper anterior teeth. The second stage involves closing the extraction spaces. Begg mentioned that it was important to maintain the corrections achieved in Stage I while working on Stage II. The third stage of the Begg technique involves the root correction in the labio-lingual direction or mesio-distal direction. Harold Kesling and George Dishham, American orthodontists, introduced the Begg technique to many orthodontists in the United States in the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1959, Dr. Kesling and Dr. Rocke invited over 150 orthodontists to assess the result of over 100 cases which were treated by Kesling and others with the Begg technique. Kesling is known for popularizing the technique in the United States.

Death

Dr. Begg retired in 1980. On 18 January 1983 he died at Glen Osmond and was cremated. He is survived by his youngest daughter, Diana Coates.

Awards and recognitions

* Became Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in 1981 * First Australian to be inducted into Hall of Fame at the Paris-based

Pierre Fauchard Pierre Fauchard (January 2, 1679 – March 21, 1761) was a French physician, credited as being the "father of modern dentistry". He is widely known for writing the first complete scientific description of dentistry, ''Le Chirurgien Dentiste'' (''" ...

Academy * Founding member of

Australian Society of Orthodontists Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

in 1927 * Albert H. Ketcham Memorial Award Recipient by AAO in 1977 * Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Dental Surgeons There is a plaque in his honour on the

Jubilee 150 Walkway The Jubilee 150 Walkway, also variously known as the Jubilee 150 Commemorative Walk, the Jubilee 150 Walk, Jubilee 150 Plaques, the Jubilee Walk, or simply J150, is a series of (initially) 150 bronze plaques set into the pavement of Nort ...

, at the Adelaide Dental Hospital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Begg, Raymond 1898 births 1983 deaths Orthodontists People from Coolgardie, Western Australia University of Adelaide alumni University of Adelaide faculty University of Melbourne alumni People educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide Officers of the Order of Australia 20th-century dentists

Education

Begg technique

Death

Awards and recognitions

See also

References