Rolf Fränkel
Dr. Rolf Fränkel (March 29, 1908 – September 9, 2001) was a German Orthodontist who is known to develop the Frankel functional appliance.[1]
Life
He was born in Leipzig in 1908. He received his dental degree in Leipzig in 1930. He started working on Orthodontic patients in 1928. After that, he was part of an OMFS department in a Hospital in Essen after which he worked in a private practice in Zwickau until 1942. Dr. Fränkel was drafted in WWII and after the war he returned to his private practice in Zwickau. The town then became part of East Germany which isolated Dr. Fränkel from the world in the West. In 1961, Dr. Fränkel became the head of HeinrichBraun Regional Hospital in Zwickau. He stayed on that position until his retirement in 1978. Dr. Fränkel's initial work was in German and therefore he wasn't recognized much in the Orthodontic world. After he learned English and Dr. T.M Graber's invitation to speak at a Lecture in University of Michigan School of Dentistry, his popularity gained.[2]
He died in Zwickau, Germany, at the age of 93 years. He is survived by his wife Else. Dr. Fränkel and his wife had two Christine Fränkel and Sibylle Fränkel.
Functional Activator Appliance
In his practice, Dr. Fränkel had used the activator functional appliance and experienced mixed results with this appliance. He believed that a treatment outcome is more stable if the functional deviations of muscles are also corrected along with dentition. Therefore, through his work he developed an approach which allowed the maxillary and mandibular muscles to play an important part in an orthodontic treatment. He achieved that through development of functional regulator appliances. These appliances allowed him to train and reprogram the musculature around the mouth. He published around 70 articles which stressed the importance of his appliance in expanding the dental arches.[3]
He first introduced his functional orthopedic approach in 1966 at a meeting for European Orthodontic Society.
Awards
- University of Erfurt, Professor of Medicine, 1973
- Humboldt University of Berlin, Honorary Doctorate, 1990
- Royal College of Surgeons of England Fellow, 1992
- Albert H. Ketcham Award, 1995
References
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