Australian Society of Orthodontists
The PCH Cleft and Craniofacial Conference was developed to provide orthodontic postgraduates, as well as other specialist dental and medical trainees, with a comprehensive overview of cleft and craniofacial management from infancy through to adulthood. While orthodontic postgraduate programs across Australia and New Zealand teach the principles of craniofacial and syndromic care, there is no other course dedicated solely to this patient group, delivered from within a tertiary paediatric setting. The inaugural meeting was held in 2019. This was followed by another successful event in 2023, with more than 60 orthodontic postgraduates from every Australian and New Zealand orthodontic program participating in the two conferences. They were joined by registrars from oral and maxillofacial surgery, paediatric dentistry, plastic and reconstructive surgery, oral Medicine, ear nose and throat, periodontics, prosthodontics and allied health disciplines integral to cleft care such as speech pathology. This multidisciplinary mix is deliberate as our patients are never treated by a single specialty in isolation, and we want postgraduates to see this first-hand. Feedback from attendees across both meetings has been consistently strong and we look forward to once again welcoming participants from Australia and New Zealand on 13 th and 14 th August 2026.