On May 27th, I was invited by Dr. Noriyuki Kitai, Professor and Chairman of Ashahi University School of Dentistry, Department of Orthodontics, and given an opportunity to speak at his study group in Osaka and spoke about Lingual Orthodontics for 2 hours.

He graduated at Osaka University in 1986, one of the best Universities in Japan.  For 18 years he worked as an instructor and associate professor at Osaka University.
Since 2004 he has been chairman and professor at Ashahi University School of Dentistry.

I consider professors and chairmen to be different from private practioners and I tend to hold them in high regard.
Whenever I spend time with them, I always become very nervous.
Therefore I was very surprised by Dr. Noriyuki Kitai’s email that said he would come to my office just to say thanks when I had accepted his offer.

The day before the meeting, I had an appointment with Dr.Haruya Ogawa to have a quite casual dinner in Osaka, that is Takoyaki at public Japanese Bar.
However I had gotten a call that Prof. Kitai would join us so that we had Japanese Kushiage Dinner at a nicer restaurant.

Waiting for them in front of the restaurant is the polite thing to do when we see the people at first time in Japan, so I was waiting for Dr. Kitai in this way.
After a few minutes, he appeared with a smile, and we started the dinner.
Soon I learned that he is a quite friendly and kind, and we enjoyed a fantastic dinner.

Next day, I had around 50 Orthodontists at my lecture, which turned out to be quite successful.
My Lingual practice is quite different from that of other famous doctors’.
For example, I do not use Palatal bars, Loop mechanics, or Bands, and am using my original Lingual brackets that are small and comfortable for patients, and my way of thinking about the Bowing effects, the concept of Anchorage, etc., are quite different from other practices.
So I hope they could find my 2 hour lecture interesting.





The reason why I can get quite excellent results are the effects of my own Indirect Bonding Procedure and my brackets.
Without them, I will not be able to keep the quality of my Lingual treatment.
I was so happy that I have had such a nice time, and left Osaka.
I hope to see him in my town next time.




On June 4th, I had a chance to see Haruya again because he had a lecture at the Ko-Hoku-Shin-Etsu Orthodontic Society Meeting, held in my town.
He is my colleague of the USC course, and he currently has a private practice in Fukuyama, Hiroshima.

I drove my Alfa Romeo Spider to pick him up at Shiojiri Station.
After the brief sightseeing including Matsumoto Castle, we headed to “Sugimoto Ryokan” which is one of my favorite Japanese Style Hotels.





We enjoyed wonderful dinner and hot springs.
 


His lecture at the meeting.



Soba lunch at the typical Nagano restaurant.


I am so happy that we had such a wonderful time and relaxed together because I am always too busy with my practice, congresses and writing articles.
Thank you Haruya, and see you soon.

From April 2nd to 4th, the World society of Lingual Orthodontics Meeting was held at the Osaka International Convention Center.



I was invited for this congress as a lecturer of Pre-congress　course and the very last speaker of April 3rd.

The opening ceremony was started with a one minute silent prayer to the people killed with Tsunami.
When I imagine the people who lost their family and have never seen them since the earthquake, they nevertheless never give up their lives and believing their families are still alive somewhere, I became so sad and could not stop my tears.
It is hard to imagine the hardships and the horrors that people have endured from the earthquake and the tsunami.
I do not believe I could endure such trauma with such grace as I have seen and I hope the best psychological care will be provided for victims, and a fast recovery from the stricken area will be done.

As for the congress, most participants from abroad had canceled their attendance due to the Nuclear power plant accidents.
However, some of them attended the meeting, and whenever they said "Ganbare-Nippon, Makeruna-Nippon" or presented such slides, tears streamed down my cheeks.


On April 2nd, the day before the congress, pre-congress　courses were held.
There were speakers who had just a few participants in their classes, however I was fortunate to have around 90 attendants so that the main congress room was used for my course.



I deeply appreciate all the participants around the world who chose to attend my course.



My course consisted of three kinds of wire bending and the Key Points Lecture of Lingual Orthodontics.



These three kinds of wire bending exercises were linked to each other.
The "Breakfast menu" is a training that enhances the wire bending skills in our practice.

The second one helps us understand how the posterior section affected by anterior bends, or its opposite, and master how we can bend the rectangular wires precisely, without making any distortions.



The third one is a clinical exercise, how to bend the closing arch, how to add the Labial Crown Torque in the anterior section.
Using 1725 Beta Titan wire, fabricate a Lingual mushroom　arch, and put the Labial Crown Torque in the anterior area, then to adjust the Gable Bend.
The completed wire was the same wire as I use for Space Closing in my practice.

These 3 exercise took much longer than I had expected, so I the lecture of  Key points was done in a hurry.

I was afraid that I might get some complaints from attendants because I made the lecture so quick, however, so many doctors came to me and shared their appreciation for such torqueing techniques.

Detailed information is not written on this website because to attend the classes is better than reading about them.
I am sorry for any inconvenience that may cause.
Please look forward to the next chance that we may meet.


As for the main congress, an ”Incident” that will change the future of Orthodontics in Japan happened.
That is, Dr.Goto, the Professor and Chairman of Aichi　Gakuin University, and many other professors and chairmen attended the Congress.
This is Dr.Inami's effort, which I really respect along with his great work.　
Outside of Japan, a lot of Professors and Chairmen routinely attend Lingual meetings, however no Japanese Professors or Chairmen had ever attended the Lingual meetings before.
 
There are some reasons for it, but I think the biggest ones are the negative images against Lingual Orthodontics, such as "Lingual orthodontists are money　collectors" or "the poor results of Lingual orthodontics" kept them away from Lingual orthodontics.
 
All Lingual Orthodontists must think about them, and review what you/they did in past days.
Even though she/he has few thousands cases of Lingual but only a few excellent cases, it is quite natural to be treated as above.
 
Therefore, whenever I treat Lingual, I always concentrate every thing be better than Labial treatment, not only for treatment results but also records, diagnosis, treatment process, treatment results, treatment terms, post-treatment stabilities, etc..

For my presentation, I emphasized that Lingual is not Fashion, Lingual is not a tool to get more patients, but there are doctors who are practicing Lingual quite seriously, and doing quite excellent work.
I hope all the people in the Congress can understand my opinion and that we can continue a positive dialogue concerning Lingual orthodontics.


He is Dr Arima, from Brazil.
I heard that his board cases were the best among the candidates.



At the congress, Dr.Svitlana Babii asked me if she could visit my Clinic after congress, and I was happy to accept her offer.



She stayed at my clinic for two days, so that she learned the laboratory procedures of the Hiro Technique.


We had a Dinner at the Japanese Kitchen. 


Say Vdoka!






The next Lingual meeting will be held on June 28th to July 1st, at Frankfort.  
I hope I will be able to see everyone who attended this WSLO at the next ESLO meeting.

On 24th and 25th in October, "Toshiaki Hiro's Lingual Orthodontic Seminar" was held at the Tokyo Station Conference.

10 years have passed since I held the Lingual Orthodontic Course in Japan.
In 2001, it was a great success with 200 participants but I haven't held any courses in this country since.
This is because my primary work is treating patients, not teaching other doctors.

However, I turned 50 years old this year, it is a half century, and I began to realize that my life is quite short.
Since I was given the 1st World Board of Lingual Orthodontics around the world at the ESLO meeting in Cannes, and I had passed the Member of Orthodontics RCSEd, the European Board of Orthodontics, and the Japan Orthodontic Board, submitting Lingual Orthodontics cases for these exams, and, also I heard that "Hiro technique's study group" was born in Italy, I had changed my mind about teaching what I have learned to others.
With that in mind, I chose to introduce all of my treatment techniques and laboratory procedures for young orthodontists, the successors.
So I held the Lingual course in Tokyo, Japan.



I advertised in just 3 kinds of Orthodontic Journals, but fortunately, I had about 100 Orthodontic specialists, coming from all over Japan.

The first day, I explained the procedure of widely used Indirect Bonding Systems and its pros and cons, the most recent Hiro system laboratory procedure and its key points, showed a Clinical video of Hiro's indirect bonding 〜 Brace off 〜 Bonding fixed lingual retainers, introduced 8 Lingual Orthodontic cases submitted for EBO, 3 lingual cases for JOB, Low teen lingual cases, and discussed the trouble cases of attendants that were sent to me before the course.



The presentations about the anchorage and the bowing effects were the most important and interesting lectures because my opinion is different from many other doctors.



The second day, only 30 limited participants took the Laboratory experience course, and they completed the most recent "Hiro's Indirect Core" with my supervision, using special set-up models.

After the course, I received a lot of emails from participants that the course was excellent, which they had never taken before.
Some of them expressed that the first day alone would be worth a 500,000yen attendance fee.





I was so happy to meet them, and also I had great time with my staff.

I thank to my staff.