History Of
Brackets
Dr. Angle proposed the most commonly used bracket today in 1924. Called the “twin wing” bracket, it consists of a horizontal slot into which a wire is placed. The bracket has wings which provide hooks to hold very thin wire to keep the thicker wire in the horizontal slot. Before then, the most commonly used orthodontic brackets consisted of vertical tubes attached to teeth. The tubes accepted pins which the orthodontist had soldered onto a heavy wire.
In 1972 Larry Andrews published his research on the “Six Keys to Normal Occlusion”. His research consisted of accurately measuring the position of teeth in 120 casts of naturally good-to-excellent occlusions collected at the University of Illinois. This information was then used to accurately cut the slots in twin wing brackets. The precision cut slot is engaged by a square or rectangular wire to move the teeth to a measurement similar to what Dr. Andrews published in his research.
