The illustrious pages of orthodontic history
are decorated by mechanotherapy that has
transcended tooth movement brought about
by finger pressure to magnets or technology
driven and designed appliances. The most
important factors that have traditionally
determined the longevity and popularity of a
treatment protocol or appliance have been
biomechanical efficacy.
However, as society transformed itself to
embrace image and appearance consciousness,
the oldest specialty of dental professionals
constantly evolved its repertoire to integrate
the destination and the journey that
exemplify it. If aesthetics is an important goal
of our maneuvers, why shouldn’t our appliances
strive to attain the same during the
course of this attainment? If functional efficacy
is an important goal of our maneuvers,
why should our appliances restrict or impede
mastication or speech during course of treatment?
Whether, this quest for convenience
driven appliance designs compromises its
efficacy, is the million -dollar question!
Inconspicuous appliances date back to
1945. The tooth positioner and the dental
contour appliance were amongst the first
prototypes of the modern day aligners.
Lingual Orthodontics popularized itself in
the 1970’s. The orthodontic community,
internationally was skeptical about the efficacy
of all these appliances with respect to efficiency
and ability to deliver precision. The
waxing and waning interest was also compounded
by the fact that metals and wires
were in our comfort zone, and all types of
inconspicuous appliances required stepping
onto a learning curve, embracing technology
and laboratory skills
.
