Dr. Ron L. Gallerano was awarded the 2021 Martin Dewey Award, which is the highest honor of the Southwest Society of Orthodontists (SWSO), recognizing outstanding contributions and advancements to the field of Orthodontics. This award was presented to Dr. Gallerano at the centennial session of SWSO’s meeting in Dallas, Texas on September 24, 2021.
Dr. Gallerano earned his DDS degree, graduating as valedictorian from Louisiana State University dental school in New Orleans in 1972. He served in the United States Navy as a Dental Officer for two years immediately following graduation. After his honorable discharge, he enrolled in the orthodontic residency program at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he received his Master of Science Degree in 1976. His Master's thesis examined crowding of the lower front teeth, ten years or more after completion of treatment. He subsequently moved back to Houston, where he was in private practice until 2010. In 1981 he opened his Santa Fe office, which is now his primary office.
In addition to this prestigious award, Dr. Gallerano is a founding member and has continues to be involved in the Bayou City Orthodontic Study Club since its inception in 1981. From 1989 to 1994, he served on the AAO Council on Scientific Affairs. He has won numerous awards for clinical cases in the "Texas Tweed" study club and served as its president during the name transition to "Texas Orthodontic Study Club" in 2005. He has given presentations to that study group and to the Southwestern Society or Orthodontists and has had the honor of lecturing at the national AAO meetings in 2007, 2011, 2016, 2017 & 2019. In 1991 Dr. Gallerano joined the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Dentistry – Department of Orthodontics, as a clinical associate professor, responsible for both lecturing and clinical case management with first- and second-year residents and has served in that capacity since then.