Notes about the founder - John Mew
See also: Papers Published By John Mew
Born 1928. His father was a dentist. A dyslexic,
he was a lateral thinker who found exams difficult. After qualifying
in 1953, he studied Maxilo-facial surgery, before moving to orthodontics
in 1965. For many years he remained very much within the establishment
becoming president of the Southern Counties Branch of the British
Dental Association in 1971. He was honoured with life membership
of the British Dental Association in 1999.
His surgical training at East Grinstead gave him the opportunity
to study occlusal and TMD problems. He also observed the facial changes
that followed the repositioning of its skeletal components; especially
the Maxilla. Noticing that many facial problems appeared to have
environmental origins he became interested in early facial growth
and the factors which might influence it.
He wrote a number of scientific papers and a full length text book about his technique "Biobloc", and lectured and/or taught in most countries in the world, where he set up many study groups.
Sports. Always a keen competitor, he played rugby football until he was 50. At the age of 18 he learnt to fly a Tiger Moth, and subsequently took up first fixed wing gliding and later hang gliding, making an attempt on the British Endurance Record which was frustrated by the weather. At the age of 19 he designed and built his own sports car, fabricating much of it from scratch, and later raced it successfully. From 1957 to 1967 he took up motor racing seriously, moving from formula three to formula one, and was one of the last successful private entrants in the sport, entering events all over Europe. In 1963 he twice broke the Formula One club circuit record at Brands Hatch, beating times set by World Champions Jim Clarke, and John Surtees.
Full details of John Mew's
racing career
A keen sailor. In 1958 he was selected
for the British Team for the first post war challenge for the
Americas cup, unfortunately due to subsequent changes he did
not take part in the event itself. In 1971 he was selected to
crew John Prentice the captain for the British 'International
Fourteen' dingy racing team in Annapolis, USA where Britain came
second. In 1974 John in his own boat Achilles with his crew Michael
Moss took individual second place in the World Championship Anniversary
race at Cowes, UK.
Other Interests. A philosopher at heart
with an interest in human sciences he is presently completing
research for a book on social anthropology. More pragmatically
he is interested in the construction and repair of ancient buildings
and in 1999 he built a reproduction castle on an island in a
lake. This captured the public imagination and received several
national awards including the “Best New Home in Britain”.
The nephew of a successful inventor, he himself has many inventions
(successful and unsuccessful) to his credit. In the past he has
also been a garage proprietor, jousted in medieval armour, and
bungee jumped in Australia.
Home. Married to a physiotherapist with three
children, he is especially interested in the construction and
repair of ancient buildings. He lives in his castle on an island
in a lake in East Sussex (South of London).
Suppression. Sadly because he was always seeking
change, he antagonised many members of the Orthodontic Establishment.
It is necessary for professional groups to resist unsupported change and on occasion to suppress unjustified claims. However a greater problem is the mind set of those who have been educated to believe in a particular doctrine. ‘Rules’ encourage inflexible thinking and this can make reasoned discussion difficult. John had the disadvantage of being dyslexic, this made it difficult for him to pass exams to the point that he failed his basic dental qualification four times, only passing it on the fifth occasion because a recommended ‘Honours’ in orthodontics was set against a ‘Failure’ in Dental Materials. This no doubt handicapped him in academic circles.
On the other hand, lateral thinking enabled him to introduce many new techniques to orthodontics in the 60's and 70's. At that time most were unacceptable to the establishment, so much so that he was heavily fined by the National Health Service for providing ‘inappropriate’ treatment. After several years of oppression, he appealed against the Minister of Health in the high court, where in 1987 Mr Justice Stuart Smith decided that "these very serious strictures were wholly unwarranted and perhaps go some way to justify the applicant’s doubts as to the impartiality of the Dental Services Committee". He awarded John substantial costs. As a result, the NHS attitude to alternate orthodontics changed and orthodontists in the UK became able to use expansion and functional appliances as they wished.
As soon as he challenged traditional orthodontic
belief he was labelled a maverick and had difficulty in getting of his scientific
papers published. One major paper Mew,JRC. 2004. "The
Postural Basis of Malocclusion: A philosophical overview". The
American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics. 126:729-738 took
23 years and was rejected 15 times although it is now accepted as major contribution
to the literature. Andrew Graham editor of Dental Practice wrote concerning
one of his papers "beautifully reasoned as ever, it makes good and sensible
reading, never-the-less it pains me to tell you we can not publish’. ‘The
reasons as I expect you know are the same as before, namely the disgraceful
uproar from your colleagues".
Another paper, ‘Mew
JRC 2007. Facial Changes in Identical Twins Treated by Different
Orthodontic Techniques. The World Journal of Orthodontics. 8: 174-188.},
a study of Identical Twins treated by different methods, took 15 years to get
published despite or possibly because of its very powerful findings. Another
paper “Using
the ‘Best Results’ Method to Establish the Potential of Different
Orthodontic Techniques” showed that Orthotropics® had
a far greater potential than a wide range of other methods but was rejected
because the referees were unwilling to accept that the statistics required
to confirm the potential (efficaciousness) of a treatment should be dealt
with differently from those required to demonstrate the success ratio (effectiveness).
This resistance has inevitably delayed the acceptance of Orthotropics®.
Many of those who have supported his views have been unable to do so openly for fear that their career structure would have been threatened and several students believe that they failed their exams because they mentioned his name. In 2008 the British Orthodontic Society evicted him from membership because of his criticisms of orthodontic research and practice. He had spoken out because his concerns about the poor standards of orthodontic research and the fact that no one appeared willing to look at the evidence suggesting that Fixed Appliances could cause facial damage.
He was never invited to present a paper at the British Orthodontic Conference, despite the fact that he had addressed equivalent societies in many overseas countries and had certainly published more papers than most British university lecturers. The same fate has befell Dr Bill Clark who was never invited to talk about the Twin Block appliance which he invented and is used all round the World. The Establishment can be very protective.
In 1989 John wrote to David Di Biase the chairman of the British Association for the Study of Orthodontics saying "My biggest regret is that I do not have the opportunity for intellectual debate. You know of my knowledge and experience in this field and yet I have no chance of sharing it".
Above all we need an independent assessment of the aetiology of malocclusion and an impartial comparison of the different methods of correction. There is no doubt that the UK orthodontic establishment is currently suppressing free debate on these issues.∧ TOP