Lingual Braces

Lingual Braces at Rehan Dental Surgery

Lingual Braces are one of the many types of the fixed orthodontic treatment appliances available to patients needing orthodontics. It involves attaching the orthodontic brackets on the inner sides of the teeth. The main advantage of lingual braces is its near invisibility compared to the standard braces. 

Advantages of Lingual Braces

These are located more closer to the center of resistance of a tooth than brackets which are placed on a buccal surface of a tooth. Thus when a patient bites down, the biting forces are directed through the center of resistance of those anterior teeth. Thus the light continuous forces directed towards the upper lingual brackets may induce slight intrusion of the upper anterior teeth. However, forces that are felt on the anterior teeth seem to be minimal, in milligrams. An optimum force needed to intrude teeth is 30-40g

As the mandibular teeth are biting on the upper brackets, it results in an anterior bite plane effect. This eventually leads to the light, continuous intruding force that is being felt on the front incisors. This bite plane effect may also induce slight opening in the posterior molar teeth and these teeth may extrude, leading to correction of deep bite or worsening of an already open bite. This can worsen a Class 2 malocclusion as mandible rotates down and back, leading to more of a Class 2 molar relationship.

Due to the small interbracket distance in the lingual braces, compare to the buccal braces, compensatory bends which can be made in finishing phase are tough to create. The distance between brackets anteriorly in inside braces is about 40% smaller than the buccal braces. Despite the bends, making loops to close spaces also becomes mechanically tough