The AAO Foundation (AAOF) has announced that the Legacy 300campaign to create the AAOF Craniofacial Growth Legacy Collection hadmet its $1.5 million fund-raising goal. Donors include members of theAAO, orthodontic industry representatives, friends of the specialty,orthodontic study clubs, and orthodontic alumni groups.
The AAOF Craniofacial Legacy Growth Collectionwill preserve samples of irreplaceable longitudinal craniofacial growthrecords dating back more than 75 years and representing approximately1,000 children and adolescents who did not have orthodontic treatment.Many of the older records are deteriorating due to the normal breakdownof radiographic images. The complete sets of growth records are now incollections that are the property of a number of American and Canadianuniversities.
The records to be preserved through digitizing include lateral andfrontal cephalograms, hand-wrist films, dental radiographs, study casts,and written records on the subjects’ physical development. The digitalfiles are being uploaded to a searchable online database.It currently houses more than 2,000 lateral cephalograms from nine collections, representing more than 200 cases.
The Legacy 300 campaign’s name refers to the maximum numberof donors needed to reach the $1.5 million goal at the minimumrecognition level of $5,000. Donors’ pledges were only to be used forthe AAOF Craniofacial Growth Legacy Collection. All voting members ofthe AAOF Board of Directors are members of the Legacy 300.
