Živko Bolf was the first orthodontist in Yugoslavia. He attended schools of medicine in Graz, Zagreb and Vienna. He specialized in dentistry in 1926 in Vienna in A. Hoppenheim’s class, who was one of the most famous European orthodontist of his time.
Bolf opened a private dental practice in Sušak, and then in Zagreb. In 1948, when the Department of Odontology at the Medical Faculty in Zagreb was founded, he was elected the first teacher, and formed the Department of Jaw and Dental Reconstruction.
In 1955, he became the head of the Department of Odontology, which he reorganized and lay the foundations for the Department to become an independent institution. He was one of the founders of the Faculty of Dentistry in Zagreb and its first dean (1962-65).
He is a person of historical importance for the Republic of Croatia.