Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Fall 2017 - 19

Portrait of a Professional

Dr. James J. Jasper, Portland, OR
Dr. Charity Siu
PCSO Bulletin Contributing Editor

Dr. James J. Jasper
with his wife, Nina

Charity Siu (CS): Dr. Jasper, tell me about your
childhood.
James Jasper (JJ): I was born in Southern California right before World War II. My father saw the
war coming and enlisted with the U.S. Navy; we
were stationed in San Diego. After the war, we
moved up to Berkeley and he became an engineer/inventor. He developed a patent that is still
used all over the United States. I loved to ride my
bike around the UC Berkeley campus after school,
so it was natural that I went to Cal where I
became a physics/chemistry major. In my junior
year, my right brain awakened and I shifted to
be a sculpture major. I secured an apprentice
position with Benny Bufano, a famous sculptor
in the Bay Area.
CS: How did you choose dentistry?

The Incredible Hulk, starring Jim
McNamara, Dave Schaal, and Jim
Jasper

Some UCSF residents having fun in
"vintage" movie

Fall 2017  PCSO Bulletin

JJ: I didn't! It chose me. A life-changing event
happened: school integration was, of course, in
full swing at Berkeley. I attended a Salt and Pepper
party, which was a social event for AfricanAmericans and Caucasians. I was dancing when
I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I turned around,
someone hit me on both sides of my jaw, and I
passed out on the dance floor. The assailants
were later identified as early members of the
Symbionese Liberation Army.
I had never seen a dentist in my life, so my medical doctor referred me to an oral surgeon. Both
sides of my jaw were broken, so he wired me shut
and gave me wire cutters to wear around my
neck for six weeks! I viewed him as a sculptor of
the human face, and that experience was the
inspiration for my transition from stone and
marble to dental school at UCSF.

UCSF was a unique dental school in that a few
students were able to advance to orthodontics
during dental school and drop crowns, bridges,
and dentures. I was in the last year of what they
called Curriculum II: it was a three-year program,
so I managed to finish cases. The late Sixties were
a very exciting time to live in San Francisco. Jim
McNamara, Dave Schaal, and I decided to start a
cover band called The Incredible Hulk and learn
all the latest songs; we ended up playing to a
crowd of 2,000 at Cal Berkeley.
We had some great mentors during that time:
Don Poulton, Rod Mathews, George Payne, Big
Daddy, and Bob Schultz. Bob was a young guy
who had just gotten out of the service; he introduced us to the lighter forces of the .018 slot size.
Jim and I were very interested in diagnosing and
developing a treatment plan for the face as a
whole, and Dr. Harvold was there to educate
us about concepts coming out of Scandinavia,
such as the Bionator and Activator. Posturing
the mandible forward could somehow alter
the profile! This was fascinating and fit into my
dream of sculpting the human face.
When I graduated in 1969, I bought a one-way
ticket to London for $125 and made my way up to
Arhus, Denmark. Dr. Harvold was the head of the
orthodontic department there, prior to his time
at UCSF. I got a job as a clinical instructor because
I understood edgewise mechanics and how
the archwire produces a curved vector to reach
up near the center of rotation of each tooth.
Although Dr. Angle's idea of edgewise mechanics
was published in 1928, Europe was just changing
from the tipping round wire mechanics of Begg
forces to the bodily movement of edgewise in
1969. It is with a tremendous amount of irony
that I realize I am in the same boat today. Every

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Fall 2017