History of dental braces

Do you think the braces you have around your naughty teeth are invention of modern man? You are wrong. It’s surprising that the dental braces used to straighten the teeth were used even before the era of Jesus Christ. The American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) says that archeologists have found some bodies of ancient man which had metal stripes weaved around their teeth and some were even around individual tooth. The living era of these mummified ancients dates back to 400BC!

The field of dentistry which deals with proper positioning of our teeth is called Orthodontics. Many people have taken interest in developing this field and it is said that even Aristotle thought about various ways to fix the deformation of teeth and filling gaps in between teeth. In early stages ancient man used catgut as the material for preparing braces. Catgut is a cord made from the intestine of sheep or goat which is good in toughness. As the world has changed a lot thereafter so has the materials used to prepare braces have. During 1800’s catgut was replaced by wood, copper, brass and after some years by gold and silver. Even in this time braces were something which can be afforded only by wealthy ones. Gold and silver were naturally preferences of kings and royal people. It was important that the material used should be good to mould and take various shapes. Gold is good at it, but due to its high price it was marginally used. Later during 1950’s stainless steel braces were found to be more effective and were used thereafter. Now-a-days everyone can afford the braces and give attractive positions to their deformed teeth.

The development of this field has many contributors who did splendid work of bringing Orthodontics to the place where it is now. Norman W. Kingsley was the first one to write an article on Orthodontics in 1858. In 1880 he wrote a book on Orthodontics called “Treatise on Oral Deformities”. Contribution from another dentist Dr. Farrar is worth noting. He wrote a very classic book on Orthodontics called “A Treatise on the Irregularities of the Teeth and Their Corrections”. It is said that he was very good at designing braces and their applications. The idea of using mild force at timed intervals was first put forward by this man.

Today as every field is advancing so is Orthodontics. Better braces and applications are devised. Braces will be used further as they are one of the best solutions for teeth deformations and they will continue shaping your teeth positions which adds to your beauty.