ABOUT

He received orthodontic training under Dr. Jarabak at the Department of Orthodontics, Loyola University Chicago School of Dentistry. While working as his assistant, Dr. Roth presented his own cases at an orthodontic meeting and received very high praise. However, he himself was concerned that the patients’ faces after treatment looked worse than before treatment. He felt uneasy about the praise from veteran orthodontists. Although the alignment of the teeth met the standards of the time, it was far from functional. He sensed that something was fundamentally wrong. This realization marked the beginning of a major paradigm shift in orthodontic treatment using fixed appliances, a field with a long history spanning more than 100 years.

Dr. Roth believed that whenever orthodontic treatment is undertaken, it should achieve excellence both aesthetically and functionally—not only at the completion of treatment, but for many years thereafter, with results that remain stable over time. With this conviction, he embarked on a journey to fundamentally transform orthodontic treatment—not merely by changing techniques, but by redefining the very foundation of the field. He was an exceptional clinician who introduced the essential element of jaw function into orthodontics, which had previously focused primarily on form. There had been no one like Dr. Roth before him, and no one has matched his influence since.