Orthopedics

The branch of surgery broadly concerned with the skeletal system (bones). Orthopedics is how this field of surgery is listed under Physicians & Surgeons in the telephone Yellow Pages in Jacksonville, Florida. This spelling is quite common today. But it is incorrect, erroneous, flat out wrong. Orthopedics would relate the term to the foot because in Latin pedis means foot. Orthopaedics is not merely old-fashioned. It is the correct spelling. What was meant by the term orthopaedics when it was devised goes back to its roots: ortho-, straight + the Greek paes, child = the practice, literally, of straightening the child. If the child had a crooked spine (scoliosis), it was the job of the orthopaedist to straighten the child, not just the child's foot. That is why there is no American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery but there is an American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery. And that is also why orthopaedists look after broken bones.

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The medical specialty concerned with the preservation, restoration, and development of form and function of the musculoskeletal system, extremities, spine, and associated structures by medical, surgical, and physical methods. SYN: orthopaedics.

- dental o. SYN: orthodontics.

- functional jaw o. utilization of muscle forces to effect changes in jaw position and tooth alignment by removable appliances. SYN: functional orthodontic therapy.

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or·tho·pe·dics or chiefly Brit or·tho·pae·dics -'pēd-iks n pl but sing or pl in constr a branch of medicine concerned with the correction or prevention of deformities, disorders, or injuries of the skeleton and associated structures (as tendons and ligaments)

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or·tho·pe·dics (or″tho-peґdiks) the branch of surgery that is specially concerned with the preservation and restoration of the function of the skeletal system, its articulations, and associated structures.