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TheToothTamer

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5+ Year Member
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I'm Currently a D1, and many of my classmates have dreams to become an orthodontist one day. I hear "orthodontics" mentioned pretty much everyday by both faculty and students. Since orthodontics is extremely competitive to pursue today, I was wondering if anyone knew about its past history/statistics. I had a conversation with a retired orthodontist who completed his residency in the late 1960s, and he told me that the specialty wasn't nearly as popular/competitive when he applied. If you applied you were almost guaranteed a spot back then. Does anyone know when ortho became so popular and competitive? Any statistics or insight is appreciated.