It had its origins in London, where on 21 October 1907, George Northcroft invited 15 colleagues to discuss establishing a society to promote orthodontics.
The inaugural meeting of the BSSO took place on 5 December 1907, when JH Badcock was elected as the Society's first President.
For most of its existence, it published the "Transactions of the BSSO" annually which contained all papers presented to the society in the preceding year.
The COG fostered and maintained strong links with the Royal Surgical Colleges and their Specialty Advisory Committee (SAC)as well as the British Dental Association (BDA).
Some years later, the Senior Registrars in Orthodontics Group (SROG) was formed to represent those undergoing higher training to become hospital consultants.
The founding members were Jack Alexander, Hans Eirew and Bill Frankland who went on to become, respectively, the first Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary of the BAO.
The process was initiated due to a realization that many members belonged to more than one group and also that the BSSO, BAO and COG were, to some extent, duplicating their activities.
The first meeting of the Conference Committee took place in December of that year and elected David DiBiase as the first Chairman.
The BOS was originally based at the Eastman Dental Institute in Grays Inn Road, London.