Dr. John O. Wirthlin is the full time craniofacial orthodontist on the cleft and craniofacial team at Texas Children's Hospital. He is one of the few orthodontists in the nation to have completed an American Dental Association-accredited Craniofacial Orthodontic Fellowship Program. Dr. Wirthlin is also a board certified member of the American Board of Orthodontists.

As a member of the cleft and craniofacial team, Dr. Wirthlin helps treat patients born with a variety of facial abnormalities including cleft lip and palate, hemifacial microsomia, Crouzon Syndrome, Pierre Robin, and a variety of other abnormalities. Treating these patients with a team-centered approach allows optimal treatment results as professionals from plastic surgery, speech pathology, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, otolaryngology, and several other specialties can coordinate and optimize each step of the treatment.

Dr. Wirthlin has been extensively trained in NasoAlveolar Molding (NAM) and begins to work with patients born with cleft lip and palate as early as one week of age. In conjunction with the other specialists on the cleft and craniofacial team, Dr. Wirthlin is able to manage the orthodontic needs of patients born with craniofacial abnormalities from the time of birth up through adulthood.