29/05/2026
Happy Friday! I had about 10 pics of appliances I was going to post today when Jesse sent me this one. It brought me back in time and reminded me of the great man who developed this appliance. His name is Dr. Raphael Greenfield, he passed in 2022. He was one of the pioneers of Non Extraction Orthodontics and his personal technician Marlon Christmas is still a friend of mine. This appliance is called a GMD for Greenfield Molar Distalizer. Dr. Greenfield designed it to be a better appliance than the ACCO designed by Dr Norman Cetlin. Dr. Cetlin was Dr. Greenfield's mentor and passed on to him the philosophy to save teeth whenever possible. That by not extracting teeth patients end up with a fuller, more broad smile and better function. We now know that this improves "Airway" substantially. Dr. Greenfield was met with much resistance from the "4 on the floor" crowd but he did not allow it to deter him. He eventually wrote a book documenting his patient cases going back 30+ years. He proved without a doubt that his finished cases were stable. Maybe Marlon Christmas will add to this post and give more insight to this great man and his dedication to orthodontics?
About the appliance:
The GMD is a classic tube and pin design. Tubes are welded to the Bicuspids buccal and lingual back to the 1st molars. .028 wires are welded to the molars buccal and lingual and go anterior to the bicuspids. Open, closed, open NiTi coil is added over the tubing as the appliance is assembled. The appliance is activated by crimping shims anterior to the coil spring buccal and lingual. Shims are added each appointment until the distal movement of the molars are Super Class One. Because the tube and pins are parallel to the occlusal plane, molar tipping is not a concern. This was a much better design then the AACO and led to the design of the Distal Jet.
I encourage you to Google Dr. Raphael Greenfield, he was an amazing and brilliant orthodontist.
