James Hilgers, DDS, MS
Mission Viejo, CA

Dr. Hilgers is one of the most widely esteemed clinicians in orthodontics today. He is an internationally recognized lecturer, teacher, author and mentor, bringing 35 years of varied clinical experience to the VectorTAS team, including several years of experience with miniscrew temporary skeletal anchorage. He has published over 100 articles in scientific and clinical journals, has given seminars throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia and has been a major essayist at 12 national meetings of the American Association of Orthodontists.

Instrumental in developing the Bios® Light-Wire Appliance System, examples of which are on display at the Smithsonian Institute, he presently serves as contributing editor for the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics and Orthodontic Products. He is an original member of the task force that designed the first fixed lingual appliance and holds numerous US patents covering a wide array of orthodontic appliances. In 1994 he received a gold medal at the prestigious New York Film Festival for that year’s outstanding educational CD-ROM.

Dr. Hilgers received his dental degree from Loyola University Dental School in Chicago. He was elected to OKU (summa cum laude) and entered Northwestern University’s orthodontic department on a National Institute of Health research grant where he obtained his master’s degree and certificate in orthodontics. He is in private orthodontic practice in Mission Viejo, California. He has a grown son and a daughter, Shannon, who will be graduating in 2007 with her master’s degree in orthodontics from Loma Linda University School of Dentistry in Loma Linda, California, where Dr. Hilgers is an associate professor. She will then join her father in the newly renovated, spa-inspired office that his wife, Susie, designed.