Integrated Clinical Orthodontics 2024

Dedication to Professor Ze’ev Davidovitch
Ze’ev Davidovitch was born in the British Mandate of Palestine on September 28, 1935. He grew up in Tel Aviv. Following high school, Ze’ev served in the Israeli Defense Forces from 1953 to 1956. As a lover of art, after his military service Ze’ev planned to enroll in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem; however, his father interceded and convinced him to apply his artistic skills to the practice of dentistry. Ze’ev studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem where he excelled, earning the Massler Award for his doctoral thesis. After graduating in 1961 with a DMD, Ze’ev was enticed to continue as a junior faculty member in the Department of Oral Diagnosis and Oral Medicine at Hadassah Medical Center.
These experiences nurtured Ze’ev’s interest in the specialty of orthodontics, and he was accepted to study at the postgraduate program at Harvard-Forsyth in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1963 to 1966. At Harvard, Ze’ev was introduced to the vast field of research, which captured his interests and satisfied his active and inquisitive mind. There he was immersed
in cutting-edge techniques and research and he developed a deep desire to ask the questions that, when answered, would impact orthodontics and beyond. During his residency at Harvard, Ze’ev performed histological studies and published his first scientific paper.
In 1966, Ze’ev returned to Hebrew University to the newly inaugurated Department of Orthodontics, marking the start of his full-time academic career; but by 1969, he realized that he would need to pursue his research dreams elsewhere.
Encouragement from his teacher and mentor at Harvard, Professor Coenraad F. A. Moorrees, got him recruited to the faculty at the University of Nebraska. This was followed by an appointment to the University of Pennsylvania from 1970 to 1984, where he was the Director of Orthodontic Research for over 10 years. There he delved deeply and published widely on the biology of tooth movement and patented a medical device with his co-workers as a result of these research efforts.
From 1984 to 1993, Ze’ev served as the Chairman of the Department of Orthodontics at The Ohio State University in Columbus. In addition to developing and operating one of the premier orthodontics laboratories in the US, Ze’ev authored and published The Ohio Bracer, a quarterly departmental periodical detailing the activities at OSU, always including multiple satirical cartoons of his own design. In addition, he initiated and organized eight international conferences dedicated to the subjects of the biology of tooth movement, mechanisms of tooth eruption, root resorption, and implant replacement of teeth. These were all compiled as proceedings, containing hundreds of articles which Ze’ev co-edited.
In 1993, Ze’ev was beckoned back to Harvard and served as Chairman until 1998. There, he continued his research efforts and organizing of international conferences. He was also instrumental in building its alumni association, the Harvard Society for the Advancement of Orthodontics, which promoted The Coenraad Moorrees Lecture that has now evolved into
a joint memorial symposium with the Forsyth Dental Infirmary.
From 1998 to 2000, Ze’ev joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma, then until 2004 he was a clinical professor at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio. From 2005 to 2010 he was a visiting professor at Nova University in Davie, Florida.
Throughout his research and academic career, Ze’ev’s activities attracted many colleagues from multiple countries to his laboratories. His research on the biology of tooth movement also took him around the world as a keynote speaker at numerous prestigious scientific conferences. He always emphasized the need to engender the next generation of basic science
researchers with the same spark that he received when he was a research fellow at Harvard-Forsyth.
During his career, Ze’ev educated hundreds of orthodontic specialists, grounding their clinical skills in scientific knowledge.
Ze’ev earned multiple grants to support his research efforts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation, and private investors. He also served for many years in study groups at the NIH reviewing grant applications.
In addition, he was a reviewer for leading orthodontics journals. Ze’ev published over 200 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, wrote chapters in multiple textbooks, and co-edited
conference proceedings and three textbooks. He was a long-time member of the American Association of Orthodontists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
and the International Association for Dental Research.
Along with his inquisitive mind, Ze’ev had a unique sense of humor that never abandoned him and that he used in every situation. He remained a talented artist throughout his life, finding self-expression in painting, drawing, and sculpting. He took pleasure in music of all genres, as well as cooking and studying history, but most of all he loved spending time with his family and friends.

For the past 20 plus years Ze’ev suffered from Parkinson’s disease, which eventually limited his ability to speak intelligibly and disconnected him from the halls full of eager listeners he was accustomed to speaking to. Mounting physical limitations were not able to dampen his everlasting optimism or cause him any self-pity.
With his patience, positivity, and sense of humor, Ze’ev continued to be involved in his profession. He remained intellectually engaged, starting and remaining as president of a medical device company called Rapid Orthodontics. By Ze’ev’s side was Galia, his wife of 59 years. She supported him in his career and helped make his accomplishments possible. Galia’s dedication during Ze’ev’s lengthy battle with Parkinson’s was the main reason that he was able to continue to contribute to his profession right up until his passing.
Ze’ev often was heard to espouse a pair of his guiding principles. First, that “the purpose of life is to make the world a better place” – his contributions as a husband, father, grandfather, educator, scientist, artist, and inventor, all pursued with devotion and good humor, have certainly been a service to humanity. Second, “that the time to rest is in the grave” – his tireless efforts marked a stalwart career that continues to ripple outward and around the world, but now it is his time to rest.
Ze’ev passed away peacefully on February 7, 2022, from Covid-19.
He is survived by his wife, their four children, and seventeen grandchildren. Blessed be his memory.
Mrs. Galia Davidovitch
Vinod Krishnan
Anne Marie Kuijpers-Jagtman