THE EDITOR'S CORNER

I have often had a "great idea" and I have put it into a little notebook or on a scrap of paper and filed it away among the things that I would get to work out some day. Many of these ideas were worked out by other people and produced. Here are a number of others.

There ought to be an instrument for measuring arch length accurately to replace the brass wire technique or the rough guess. Maybe it would be a wire within a tube; or maybe plastic or metal arches in sets of lengths with handles just to try in and measure arch length.

There ought to be an instrument that measures progress in headgear therapy. It is not needed over the long term, but would be useful for visit-to-visit evaluation.

There ought to be a chewing gum indicator. Maybe an unobstrusive bit of plastic with a surface to which gum would adhere. It could be attached to molar tubes in some way. Come to think of it, maybe it would be better not to know.

There ought to be a large, heavy, three arm plier for adjusting the shape of the outer and inner headgear bows together.

There ought to be a hinge device to hold the lead blocker on the 5" X 7" cassette to permit the blocker to be flopped over for taking both jaws on one film. This item may exist. No one seems to know.

There ought to be a better way of labeling bands and marking archwires. Grease pencil marks can too often be removed or smudged. Bands are being produced with adequate sizing labels. Simpler "1" and "2" labeling is often helpful. There is a diamond point marking pencil that might work here.

There ought to be a way to make a self-threader out of lengths of elastic thread ligature--some way of attaching a stiff, curved needle-like end to the ligature, preferably in a straight line.

There ought to be a bite plate with a sliding anterior section to permit it to ride back as the anterior teeth are retracted.

There ought to be an ultra-speed occlusal x-ray film.

There ought to be premixed cement right out of the tube.

There ought to be tiny force modules which could be incorporated into archwires in a variety of ways--chiefly to replace intramaxillary traction now done with elastics, elastic thread ligature, springs and loops.

There out to be a device that would indicate the amount of loss of cement under bands. This might be by a mapping process or a field of current flow or by a much finer probe than we now have.

There ought to be a push spring inside the handles of many of our pliers, particularly the ones that do not need turning in the hand. These could include cutters and loop formers for example, but probably not tie pliers and How pliers.

There ought to be more education of the captive audience in the orthodontic office. This could be in the form of educational displays, animated displays and more use of audio-visual aids.

There ought to be some more sophisticated coverage for irritating labial and lingual tubes than wax, and one that is longer lasting. Possibly a sliding plastic cover. Has anyone tried a Johnson-type cap on an edgewise-type bracket?

There ought to be a swiveling buccal tube for molars that require mesiodistal tipping. This could be accomplished by mounting a buccal tube on a thrust washer.

There ought to be a company that sells x-ray solutions in full-size plastic tank inserts. Just throw the old one away and insert a new one.

There ought to be a collimeter for lining up cephalometers that are not made of one piece.

There ought to be a great deal of progress in patient motivation. There are undoubtedly techniques that exist in other fields or which can be developed. Some of these are probably simple, mechanical, behavioral devices.