Biography
Dr Antonarakis completed his degree in dentistry at the University of Wales in Cardiff, UK, and his four-year orthodontic specialty training at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He subsequently received his PhD from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and then undertook clinical fellowship training in cleft and craniofacial orthodontics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. He then returned to the University of Geneva, Switzerland where he first completed his habilitation at the Division of orthodontics and has recently been appointed associate professor.
Dr Antonarakis currently serves as section editor for the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, associate editor for Clinical and Experimental Dental Research, and is an editorial board member for Orthodontics and Craniofacial Research. He has published more than 70 scientific research papers in peer-reviewed journals. His clinical and research interests include cleft and craniofacial orthodontics, treatment of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, as well as orthodontics for individuals with special needs.
Abstract
Orthodontics and the special needs patient: the road less travelled
In the general population, approximately one in three children has been shown to have an objective need for orthodontic treatment. For children with disabilities, this treatment need increases to more than nine out of ten children. We understand today, for certain specific pathologies and from a diagnostic point of view, what are the specific problems related to orthodontics, as well as the aetiology of these problems. In these populations, interceptive orthodontic treatment plays a preponderant role, in the effort to reduce the burden of more complex and lengthy orthodontic treatment. Appropriate comprehensive orthodontic treatment is also undertaken if necessary and feasible, with individualized goals for specific patients with specific pathologies.
