In this presentation, Bill Hang introduces the E.C.H.O. Mentorship, a new program that builds on his orthotropics residency to address the lack of early‑age orthodontic care. The mentorship focuses on treating children under six years old, exclusively in the primary dentition, with the goal of enhancing airway function and preventing facial regression caused by traditional, retractive orthodontic methods. Hang emphasizes that many children lack the “horsepower” for conventional treatment, so the program offers alternative, non‑retractive techniques. He outlines the intended participants—general dentists, pediatric dentists, and orthodontists—highlighting that pediatric dentists are on the front lines of airway health, while orthodontists have a natural role in primary dentition treatment. The mentorship will provide training, resources, and support to enable these professionals to adopt airway‑friendly, growth‑preserving orthodontic practices.
Chapters
The ECHO mentorship is my new program to expand upon my previous orthotropics main residency. As the years have gone by, we realize there are lots of children who just don't have the horsepower to do the treatment right, and we can't— just because of that, we can't not do something for them. So there are other things that we can do that can enhance the airway and more than anything, not make it worse, which unfortunately many traditional orthodontic treatments can do. This is going to focus on treating at a very young age with a special emphasis on treating under age 6, when the primary— entirely in the primary dentition, when kids don't even have any permanent teeth in. So that's why we're instituting this new program, which will take in— it'll have orthotropics as part of it, but it'll also have other things that we do in treating really young kids With the idea that we optimize their facial balance and airway, and more than anything, prevent them from having their face go down and backwards. People who should be interested in this program are anyone who— professional dentists who care about their kids, their grandkids, and their patients. General dentists with absolutely no experience in orthodontics can come. We're gonna have arrangements for helping them learn how to do orthodontics in a non-retractive fashion. Pediatric dentists are in the forefront. They should be the They're the front lines in the airway war. They see the kids long before most others do, and they should absolutely be involved with this. Of course I would like to see orthodontists embrace this. This is the natural turf for the orthodontist. We need people to be treating in the primary dentition. I'm excited because I've had a lot of stuff that I've done over the years that Really, I— because the focus was advertised to the participants, it was all about orthotropics, I didn't really include that. But this is going to be much more extensive and I think much better.
