Lingual braces

Lingual braces are one of the many types of the fixed orthodontic treatment appliances available to patients needing orthodontics. It involves attaching the orthodontic brackets on the inner sides of the teeth. The main advantage of lingual braces is its near invisibility compared to the standard braces which are attached on the buccal sides of the tooth. Lingual braces were invented by Craven Kurz in 1976.

Craven Kurz with Jim Mulick in 1975 developed the Cruz Lingual Appliances in United States. The first patient to be treated by lingual braces was by Dr. Kurz in Beverley Hills in 1976. She was a member of Playboy Bunny Club and after being presented with metal braces option, she wanted to get braces which did not show metal. It was from her demand that Craven developed the lingual braces. Craven consulted with Dr. Jim Mulick at UCLA School of Dentistry after which this appliance was developed. Craven's practice was dominated by adult patients, many celebrities, especially being in Beverly hills. Initial problems faced by Craven included irritation caused by appliance to tongue and patient's speech problems. Additionally, there was a higher rate of brackets being broken due to lower teeth touching upper brackets.

Eventually, a dental company named Ormco started developing lingual brackets in conjunction with Dr. Kurz. After working on several prototypes of brackets initially, the company also faced same problems: Irritation caused to the tongue and high bracket failure rate. Then, an inclined plane was added to the lingual brackets and the company saw lower failure rates. This plane allowed the shearing forces to convert into compressive forces. After the development of the inclined plane, Kurz filed for a patent in 1976. The first brackets to be produced were in 1979 by Ormco. Kurz eventually started working with the orthodontic company Ormco to develop his next 7 generations of the lingual bracket. Initial patients were seen at private practice of Kurz where the brackets were directly bonded, as compared to indirect bonding with majority of the lingual braces. Eventually, Dr. Kurz lectured to many orthodontists around US and showed his cases to the other clinicians. In the early 1980s, the interest with lingual braces started to gather steam as other companies such as Unitek, Forestadent started to develop their own groups to study these appliances.

The first organization to form around lingual braces was Société Français Orthodontie Linguale or French Orthodontic Society for Lingual Orthodontics in 1986. American Lingual Orthodontic Association was also established in 1987 and they had their first meeting in Washington that year. Dental Lingual Assistant Association was also formed around the same time. Europe saw its first lingual organization formed named The European Society of Lingual Orthodontics (ESLO) in 1992. This was followed by more societies being formed across Europe and Asia. Previously, the lingual braces were introduced to many doctors in Europe. Around the same time, many orthodontists started seeing problems in their cases and popularity of lingual braces declined by 1989.

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