Didier will be completing some of his cases at a different London venue over the next few months, and then he will restrict his practice to the continent.
He has been seeing his patients at 57a Wimpole Street for a decade. His routine has been to travel from Paris early on a Monday, see patients for two days and then travel home on the Tuesday evening.
As the only orthodontist who has exclusively used the lingual system for 30 years, Didier Fillion is peerless in the orthodontic world today. Until recently he was visiting professor at three universities: Paris V, New York University and the University of Ferrara as well as treating patients at clinics in Paris, Geneva and London.
Entente cordiale
How did our association begin? It was many years ago in Paris where I went to learn the lingual system from Didier. When lingual wasn’t taught in the UK, I was one of many orthodontists to benefit from the courses he ran there. When he discovered I was planning to open a practice in London, he asked if I would like to work with him. So began what we called our entente cordiale.
Kelly Brook and Sadie Frost
We have both worked differently, using different systems and with our own patients but sharing a commitment to the lingual system. As you will know, LLOC was the first lingual practice in the UK. Kelly Brook and Sadie Frost were Didier’s patients and among the first British patients to prove that lingual would be a treatment of choice.
Nevertheless, ten years ago, lingual was quite a lonely furrow to plough and I was glad to have Didier’s support. He and I were two of only seven people at the inaugural meeting of the British Lingual Orthodontic Society (BLOS), of which he was a driving force. He went on to become the first Chairman and President.
Didier has undoubtedly made his mark on orthodontics in the UK, particularly through BLOS and by championing the lingual technique.
Although we are saying farewell to him at the practice, he and I will still meet regularly through the world of orthodontics. In early July we are both speakers at the World Society of Lingual Orthodontics meeting in Korea.
