As it turns out, braces are actually a lot older than you might imagine and they have a long and sordid history. Although you’d imagine that every practical person in pre-modern Europe was much more concerned with tooth decay than how straight their teeth were, you’d probably have even odds that it was, in fact, the case.
I found one piece of information about the techniques and equipment that modern orthodontists use in practice particularly interesting. But I’m not going to tell you what it is here. You’re welcome to guess, or you can go to my blog and read the story for yourself. Definitely a must-read if you’re torn between Invisalign and braces.
If you’ve had braces or your kid does, you know how it goes. The orthodontist attaches the metal cleats to each tooth, runs a wire between them and uses this contraption to slowly manipulate their positions. If you’ve ever had braces taken off after years of this sort of therapy, you’ll remember just how violent that can be. The jerking and twisting, it’s just… terrifying.
So when I saw that The Atlantic had written an article that went into great detail about the history and development of modern orthodontics, well, I jumped right into that. After all, it’s not every day you get to peek behind the curtain of your next door professions. Man, was it an eye-opener.
As it turns out, orthodontics haven’t changed a whole lot in quite a while. That’s why braces still feel so barbaric to a lot of patients. Anyway, read this, it’s amazing!
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/07/braces-dentures-history/397934/
