Lawrie Smart an active orthodontics pioneer of cleft palate treatment in South Australia leading to cranio-facial unit
Dr Lawrie Smart, a 1950 graduate from Adelaide University dental school, pioneered cleft lip and palate treatment in South Australia. His study of face form and its changes with growth led to a study using his extended family (he had nine chidren with wife Joy), including granddaughter Justina, pictured with Smart at right.
Images courtesy Australian Society of Orthodontists newsletter
Orthodontist Dr Lawrie Smart pioneered the treatment of cleft lip and palate in South Australia and, with plastic surgeon Dr Don Robinson, set up the Adelaide Children’s Hospital’s cleft palate clinic that became the renowned Australian cranio-facial unit based at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide.
Born in 1928, Smart grew up on a mid north South Australia farm and studied at Sacred Heart College and Adelaide University. In the final years of his dentistry degree, he was among first student residents of Aquinas College, North Adelaide, and its first student president.
Smart graduated from dentistry studies in 1950 and, after working at the smelters clinic in Port Pirie, he went to London to study orthodontics at the Eastman Dental Hospital. There, he was particularly influenced by professor Cliff Ballard, who had a strong interest in the effects of soft tissue patterns and function on teeth.
Back in Adelaide in 1957, Smart set up a 30-plus years partnership with Dr Des McKinnon. They recognised a need for orthodontic services in South Australia country areas and started the first satellite practices in Port Lincoln, Port Pirie and Mount Gambier. At early meetings of the Australian Society of Orthodontists in South Australia, Smart was a vocal exponent of limiting extractions. His passion for saving teeth was partly influenced by his childhood experiences with country dentists and waking up after having his tonsils removed to find an incisor gone.
Lawrie was fascinated by what influenced the face’s form and its changes with growth. He gathered together records of all of his children (nine with wife Joy) and their grandparents, to assess the influence of heredity on facial patterns. He presented this work at the orthodontic congress in Adelaide in 1994. In 1969, Smart and McKinnon presented 40 non-extraction Class II cases at the Australian orthodontic congress, and then subgroups of these were presented again in 1981 and 2004, presenting a valuable long-term view of the results of their philosophy and treatment method.
Smart’s outstanding contribution to the care and managing cleft lip and palate patients led to the cleft palate clinic at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital and the Australian Cranio-Facial Unit. Smart worked for more than 20 years treating patients with these deformities. He recognised the need to integrate input from multiple fields: dentists, orthodontists, speech therapists and surgeons, and he helped set up a team of dedicated clinicians. After a visit to Oslo, he encouraged pioneering bone-grafting techniques in the unit. He served for many years on the cleft lip and palate committee of the Australian Society of Orthodontists, and he helped gain federal government help for these patients.
Smart was interested in general dental health and preventative dental care. As Australian Society of Orthodontists South Australian branch president in 1965, h worked with the executive to several dental health initiatives including fluoridating Adelaide’s water supply and having dental therapists for the school dental service. He was Australian Society of Orthodontists federal president (1966 to 1969) and a life member; also alife member of the Australian Dental Association and Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
In 2015, Smart was recognised with an Order of Australia for his contribution to dentistry and orthodontics.
* Information from Marie Reichstein of Smart Orthodontics in the Australian Society of Orthodcontists newsletter, December 2015.
