Types of Brackets

You will find an overview of all common brackets that are used in the lingual technique.

Among the numerous products on offer, there is one crucial difference. All brackets that had been used until the end of the 90s of the last century were so-called ready-made brackets, i.e. prefabricated products that were used in the same way for all patients without regard to the shape of individual teeth.

Prefabricated brackets work flawlessly with the usual technique, where the brackets are placed on the outside. However, in the lingual technique, ready-made brackets reach their limits because the shapes of the teeth vary more on the inside than on the outside, and furthermore, maximum flatness of the brackets cannot be achieved with a uniform shape.

Fully customised brackets were the breakthrough

The INCOGNITO bracket was the first fully customised lingual bracket in the mid-1990s. It was followed in 2013 by the even more powerful WIN bracket. Fully customised brackets are printed individually for each of a patient’s teeth and cast in a gold alloy (INCOGNITO) or printed directly using a laser melting process (WIN).

These processes, which involve a great deal of computer support, guarantee a previously unimaginable flat design and a precision that is not even achieved in conventional labial technology. At the same time, these brackets come with a whole range of robotically fabricated wires that make working with these systems extremely easy.

It is no coincidence that most scientific publications in lingual technique in recent decades have been about fully customised brackets. While above-average orthodontists can show good results even with the better fabricated brackets – all respect for that! – the future seems to belong to the fully individualised lingual bracket.