THE EDITOR'S CORNER

The first part of an AAO study entitled "Availability of Orthodontic Services", giving the results of a 1974 questionnaire, was published in the September issue of AJO. The second part of the survey, to be published in 1976, promises to report on actual utilization of orthodontic services, the effects of third party programs and closed panels.

Most of the report so far presents a picture of a decrease in case load, decrease in referrals, decrease in waiting lists, decrease in business, and a decreased need for additional orthodontists. It also includes census projections for the decreasing 12-year age group and for the increasing number of orthodontists through the year 1982, and it is graphically shown that the ratio of the two is likely to go from 635 to 1 in 1975 to 404 to 1 in 1982.

Orthodontists cannot control the population levels, the number of orthodontic students, the state of the economy--either as individuals or as a group. We might have some effect on third party programs as a group. We can have a very positive influence on our own practices, if we know what to look for and what to do about it when we have found it.

The need is becoming more critical every day for the orthodontist to have his finger on the pulse of his practice at all times, to know precisely what is going on, to be able to project what will be going on, and to act based on accurate information about his own practice. Orthodontists need a blueprint for survival and JCO will address itself to its formulation in the months ahead.