Just as Karl Marx found Hegel ‘standing on his head’, so the folks behind lingual braces found orthodontics inside-out. To put it bluntly: Braces aren’t always seen as the hippest of fashion accessories. Is this unfair? Yes. Does that change the all consuming horror that is popular opinion? No. In time, hopefully we will learn to live in harmony with the brace. In the meantime, we have the lingual brace.

What is the lingual brace?                               

What’s the best way to keep a brace out of sight? Put it where no one can see it. Lingual braces are fixed braces, coming with all the advantages of a fixed brace, which are attached to the inside of the teeth. Their title is derived from the Latin ‘lingual, for ‘close to the tongue’, but doubles as an indicator of all that confident talking you’ll be doing whilst not worrying about your brace’s look.

The plus points of lingual braces.

Well, the obvious one is their appearance (or lack thereof). Unless you let your apprentice dentist friends poke around in your mouth, it is doubtful anyone will ever spot those little tooth straighteners. They are also fixed braces, and here is the biggest advantage of a fixed brace: They bypass human error, your human error. Other discreet orthodontic treatments tend to consist of several removable aligners which you progress through has your teeth gradually shift. So what’s the problem? Well, they need to be worn for an average of 20 to 22 hours a day. Perhaps you forget to put them back in one evening after brushing your teeth? Well, it can mess up the chain of aligners; your teeth might not be in the correct position for the next one and you can massively delay your treatment. Can this happen with lingual braces? No, no it cannot.

Fitting them

Firstly, an impression of your mouth will be taken by a dentist at Harley Street Dental Studio in the city of London. This impression will then go to a lab where custom brackets for your teeth will be produced. These brackets, having been set in wax, will be sent to your dentist who will then fit them to you with some archwire which will gradually pull your teeth into position.