To improve form and function of the oro-face is one of the major goals of orthodontic treatment. Our fundamental understanding of the soft tissue face, however, is not sufficient enough to achieve successful treatment outcome, and requires more accumulation of broad scientific knowledge that may help orthodontists strengthen rationales of their decisions in their practice. In my lecture, following topics will be
presented:

1. What do beautiful faces mean to orthodontics/ orthodontists?
2. Objective diagnostic criteria of facial profiles
3. Asymmetry in smiles
4. Ageing - what makes difference in facial expressions?

Arthur Thornton Taylor, a pioneer in Australian orthodontics was born in 1901. Forced by family circumstances to leave school, he was apprenticed to a local dentist at the age of 14, thereby commencing a career in dentistry which finished with his retirement 61 years later. He matriculated at night school so as to enrol in the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney and spent the last two years of his course already a registered dentist.

His interest in dental associations began as President of the Sydney University Dental Undergraduates Association. He was Foundation Secretary of the St George Dental Group the following year and progressed to State Executive of the ADO in 1933, becoming Vice President in 1941. Amongst his many positions within the branch, a special interest in dental health education saw him being a member of that committee from 1931 to 1952. He was also President of the Dental Alumni Society of the University of Sydney from 1950 to 1952 and was awarded its Fairfax Reading Memorial Prize in 1968.

Developing an interest in orthodontics, he travelled to the USA to study under Dr EH Angle and was in Dr Angle's last class. He returned to Australia in 1927 and commenced a very successful practice in Sydney. In 1934 he submitted his thesis "A Study of the Incidence and Manifestations of Malocclusion and Irregularity of the Teeth" and was awarded a DDSc, University of Sydney. Nearly all the senior orthodontists in practice until the 1980s acknowledge his help and guidance in their careers.

Dr Thornton Taylor was an enthusiastic for his specialty and for its Society. He was a foundation member of the Australian Society of Orthodontists in 1927 and was elected Honorary Secretary in 1930, continuing in that position until the Society lapsed during World War II. Subsequently, he was the prime mover in the re-establishment of the Society and was the first post war president occupying that position from 1950 to 1956. During this time, he oversaw the establishment of State branches in all the mainland States and worked tirelessly to raise the profile of the infant specialty. He always believed that the Society's membership be specialists, or aspirational specialists and played no small part in creating a strong organisation which is the largest specialist society affiliated with the Australian Dental Association.

Following the formation of the Society's Foundation for Research and Education in 1961, Dr Thornton Taylor became a Trustee and, later, Chairman of an organisation that now provides most of the funds for orthodontic research in Australia.

He was made an Honorary Life Member of the Australia Society of Orthodontists in 1964, a Life Member of the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics in 1970 and was elected Vice President of the Third International Congress, London, in 1973.

He was an inveterate attendee at meetings and his contributions by way of papers and clinics were legion. He published over 50 articles in the scientific literature both here and overseas. His interest in writing continued into his retirement, when he joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers and had several short pieces published.