Braces Chic: Why Tin Grins Are In

Children with braces have a lot to smile about. The once-popular taunts of “metal mouth” and “tin grin” that haunted braces-wearers for decades are beginning to lose their bite as kids today have many stylish, colorful (dare we say “cool”?) options to choose from when it comes to straightening their teeth. It wasn’t always like this, though.       


: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">But before we dig up the history of orthodontia, here's a brief lesson on how braces work. Braces traditionally consist of three pieces:




  • bands that go around each tooth;


  • brackets on the fronts of the bands to attach the wire; and


  • wire, which runs through all the brackets and exerts pressure on the teeth.

: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">The principles of correcting teeth alignment with pressure are ancient: Archeologists have discovered mummies with crude metal bands wrapped around individual teeth, and Hippocrates wrote about straightening teeth in 400 B.C. Early “wires” were made of catgut.


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