Orthodontics

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A dental specialty concerned with the correction of misaligned teeth and jaws through the use of braces, aligners, and other corrective appliances
2. A specialized field within dentistry that deals with correcting misalignment of teeth and jaws using methods such as braces and aligners
3. A branch of dentistry focused on diagnosing and treating irregularities in teeth and jaws using devices like braces and aligners

Etymology: "Orthodontics" is built from Greek parts that describe the job itself: "orthos" meaning straight or correct, and "odous" (genitive "odontos") meaning tooth, joined to the suffix "-ics," which names a branch of study or practice, as in "mathematics" or "physics." Put together, it is literally the study or practice of making teeth straight. The word is a modern coinage rather than an ancient one. Greek writers had the building blocks, but the compound "orthodontic" was assembled from them much later, to name a specialty that the ancient world did not separate out as a field of its own. The noun form ending in "-s" follows the pattern of other "-ics" subjects, where the final "s" marks the name of a discipline rather than a plural.