Dr. R.H.A. Samuels is a Consultant Orthodontist at the Glenfield Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester England. He has an interest and been involved in several research projects on extra oral traction safety for a number of years. His interest was first drawn to the subject following the report in the literature of an injury case in the UK in the 1980’s. It became apparent that insufficient information on the aetiology of the injuries was available to be able to logically assess which safety devices were most appropriate to prevent further injuries.

Dr. Samuels organised two studies to provide more information on the subject.

Two problems with the equipment became evident. The catapult effect of the headgear/ neckgear elastic materials and the inability of the simple standard facebow to be reliably maintained within the buccal tubes at night. Self releasing modules were available to counteract the catapult effect but there was nothing available to reliably retain the facebow in the buccal tubes at night.

Dr. Samuels spent several years designing and testing different locking and retaining mechanisms on facebows to provide this retentive capability for his patients. This work eventually lead to the design of the Nitom locking facebow. Extra Oral traction patients can now be fitted with self releasing/ travel limited extra oral traction and the Nitom Locking facebow to counteract both the catapult effect and night time facebow disengagement.