When the answer is not the same for every patient
Dr Ute Schneider-Moser will bring together two topics which sit at the sharp end of modern orthodontic practice
At the British Orthodontic Society Conference 2026, Dr Ute Schneider-Moser will bring together two topics which sit at the sharp end of modern orthodontic practice: a provocative question about the future of fixed appliances and one of the most debated dilemmas in treatment planning.
Long before she became one of the most respected orthodontists in Europe, Dr Ute Schneider-Moser came to the UK as an exchange student making her first serious attempt at learning ‘decent’ English. Decades later she is returning as a speaker at what she describes as one of the most prestigious orthodontic conferences in the world. Several previous invitations had to be declined, which makes the fact of finally being a presenter at the 2026 conference all the more significant for her.
“I am extremely happy to be presenting at the BOC in Brighton,” she says. “I am very much looking forward to indulging in some nostalgic memories and to meeting our friends and colleagues at the conference.”
That warmth sits alongside a clinical voice which is precise, direct and very clear about what matters. Ute has practised in Italy for four decades, where orthodontic treatment is not subsidised by the government. Patients pay out of their own pockets, expect excellent results in reasonable time and cannot be asked to accept anything less. “We cannot experiment on patients,” she says. “We must apply evidence-based proven concepts to guide them, beginning with the end in mind, through treatment.” That context has shaped how she thinks about case selection, and it runs through both of her sessions.
A question the profession needs to ask
The title of her first lecture, Have the final days of fixed appliances already arrived? is designed to provoke. Ute is very open about that. The scale of aligner treatment growth makes the question hard to avoid. Reported prevalence of aligner treatment now ranges between 8 and 50% depending on the setting, adult patients account for around 60%of aligner treatments worldwide, and commercial demand continues to rise. The question of what place fixed appliances still occupy in that landscape is a legitimate one. “Aligners have become a massive business,” she says, “and the demand from the public is high. So the question whether fixed braces can survive this aligner storm appears justified.”
But this is not a lecture driven by nostalgia for brackets, and it is not a polemic. Ute is not anti-aligner. She is anti-overstatement. What delegates will receive is a critical analysis of clear aligner performance based on current scientific evidence and long clinical experience. The goal is not to deliver a verdict on behalf of the audience but to give them something more useful: a framework for making better decisions about when aligners are the right tool and when they are not. Case selection, in her view, is where the real work is done.
The case that never quite resolves
Her second session, The dilemma of the missing upper lateral incisor, takes on a problem which has been debated for generations without arriving at a clean answer. The reason, Ute argues, is simple. Whatever approach is chosen, the result will always be a compromise. There is no formula that works for every patient, and the variables involved are numerous: malocclusion type, whether the agenesis is unilateral or bilateral, the shape and position of the canine, Bolton discrepancy, tooth form across the whole dentition, smile projection, lip support, gum exposure, patient age and, crucially, patient values.
“There is no cookbook recipe which can be indiscriminately applied to all clinical situations of missing teeth in the anterior maxilla,” she says. “All parameters have to be taken into the equation to find the best individual solution together with the patient.”
New adhesives, ceramics and restorative techniques have genuinely changed what is possible. It is now much more achievable to plan minimally invasive restorations alongside orthodontic treatment than it was in the past, whether the approach is space opening or space closure. But that progress has made the decision more nuanced rather than simpler. Space closure, often the preferred option, still requires careful management of canine reshaping, large movements, pulp health and long term gingival stability. The aesthetic result depends on getting all of those things right.
This is also where the two sessions connect most directly. Ute is unambiguous about the role of appliance choice in these cases. Missing lateral incisors typically require large translational movements and precise torque control during canine mesialization, and these are movements where she believes aligners still underperform. “Controlling canine torque during mesialization is already difficult with fixed braces,” she says, “but it is a conditio sine qua non for an optimum aesthetic outcome. Sufficient canine torque is also mandatory for avoiding vestibular gingival recessions in the long run.” Her position is not ideological. It is clinical.
What to expect in Brighton
Digital planning does have a role, and Ute values it particularly for communication, both with patients and across the interdisciplinary team. In complex cases it makes planning clearer from the start and allows refinement as treatment progresses, especially in the finishing phase when details of tooth length, contour and gingival balance become critical. Technology helps. It does not replace sound biomechanics.
Across both sessions, Ute is offering something which is harder to find than a new technique or a product recommendation. She is offering judgement: what works, for whom, and why it matters that those questions are taken seriously. At a time when orthodontics can feel pulled between commercial pressure, patient demand and constant innovation, that kind of steady, evidence-based thinking is exactly what conferences should make space for.
For clinicians who want to sharpen their case selection, think more carefully about appliance choice, and approach the most complex treatment planning decisions with greater confidence, both of Dr Schneider-Moser’s sessions in Brighton look set to be genuinely rewarding.
Dr Ute Schneider-Moser presents Have the final days of fixed appliances already arrived? and The dilemma of the missing upper lateral incisor at the British Orthodontic Conference, Brighton Centre, 24 to 26 September 2026. Details and registration are available at bos.org.uk.