January 31st 1953, fifty years ago, orthodontics was the first dental specialty to be recognized in The Netherlands. This article describes the development to this. After the Second World War the dentist emancipated rapidly and dentistry became an academic profession in 1947. At that time the dentist was assumed to have knowledge of every field in dentistry and for orthodontics as a specialty there was no role to play. A few years later the Board of the Dutch Dental Association had to conclude - with some distaste - that a specialty in orthodontics was inevitable. As the chairman of the subcommittee for orthodontics the Groningen professor of orthodontics K.G. Bijlstra (1905-1985) had an important role in this process. November 16th, 1953 the first fifteen orthodontists were registered in The Netherlands.