A greater recognition of the clinical importance of facial proportions and tooth display has led to a greater emphasis on systematic clinical examination of the face as a diagnostic procedure. Although 3D photography now is available, digital video clips are more likely to become the standard photographic record for orthodontists. Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) offers great advantages in evaluation of patients with asymmetry, and for all patients it offers the possibility of recognizing both pathology that would otherwise have been overlooked and appreciation of new diagnostic clusters. Genetic analysis is just becoming an important tool in evaluation of orthodontic patients. Its first application is detection of a gene that codes for primary failure of eruption, which can clarify this diagnosis at ages too early to confirm it otherwise. Genetic identification of subsets of patients with skeletal Class III problems will help to establish the prognosis for growth modification in a child with a developing Class III problem, and other applications are likely to follow quickly. Clinical application of new technology has led to a marketing emphasis on aspects of the new devices that often are somewhat irrelevant. Clinical treatment decisions always should be based on information for treatment outcomes, from clinical trials if possible, but always from a series of consecutively treated patients.