Fauchard, in his practice, used a device called Bandeau, a piece of iron in the shape of a horseshoe that helped expand the palate. Modern braces were invented in 1819 by Christophe-Francois Delabarre. The French had evolved the field of dentistry in the 1700s, with notable advances that included personalized mouth guards and the removal of wisdom teeth to achieve overcrowding. However, it was Delabarre who created the precursor of braces as we know them today.
He devised a woven wire or 'cradle' fitted over the upper and lower teeth and was used for an extended period of time to straighten the teeth over time. Compassionate, realistic and complete perfectionist Fun, kind, experienced and focused on you Surprisingly, the bandeau didn't go out of style until 1819, when Christophe-François Delabarre developed the wire crib, heralding the birth of contemporary orthodontics. The crib was made of wires, often metal, that had been bent and then welded to form a “cage” that fit tightly over and around the teeth. Metal ropes or springs can then be attached and used to apply a constant force to the teeth, slowly moving them to new, improved positions, the same way our braces and aligners work.
The wire crib is actually the forerunner of several of today's appliances. Beginning in 1880, Edward Hartley Angle, considered by many to be the father of modern orthodontics, identified the true properties of malocclusions, or misalignments, of teeth and jaws. These were addressed with an increasingly effective set of orthodontic appliances that continues to this day. Although dentists would make great strides in understanding how teeth and jaws worked over the next century, the braces themselves remained more or less unchanged for quite some time.
Most were made of materials such as gold, platinum, silver, steel, rubber rubber, or vulcanite, but early orthodontists sometimes turned to ivory, zinc, copper, brass, or even wood instead. Until the 1970s, orthodontists anchored braces by wrapping wires around each individual tooth. The invention of dental adhesives allowed them to change braces attached to tooth surfaces instead. Meanwhile, stainless steel replaced gold and silver as the most popular choice for cables thanks to their formability, significantly reducing the cost of tie rods and making them more available.
Lingual braces also appeared in the 1970s, and were the first to address aesthetics by running along the inside of tooth surfaces rather than attaching to the outer surface. The field of orthodontics may seem like a modern invention, with popular orthodontic treatments such as braces almost a “rite of passage into the modern world”. The next breakthrough came in 1997, with the invention of the transparent plastic retainers known by the trade name Invisalign. Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber in 1839, and orthodontists soon realized its potential.
It wasn't until the invention of special dental adhesives in the 1970s that braces could be anchored directly to the surface of teeth, which remains standard practice for traditional braces. In the early 20th century, Edward Angle (1855-1930) invented several tools and appliances to help standardize orthodontics, which were previously based on tools customized for each patient.
Leave a Comment