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Author Topic: Identify type of bracket?  (Read 4003 times)

Offline Person

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Identify type of bracket?
« on: 15. January 2018, 19:15:11 PM »
I was wondering if the people here might be able to figure something out.

When I was in middle school, in the late '90's, a few of the kids who had braces had a different type of bracket than any of the other kids or myself. Since it was just a handful of kids who had them, I'm guessing it was a single orthodontist in the area who used them. I have never seen this type of bracket in any of the photos or videos on the internet.

They were taller than they were wide (they were pretty narrow), and the archwire ran through the very top of the bracket. There was another slot that ran through the middle of the bracket, however I only ever saw one of the kids with these brackets have a second archwire running through this slot (they had two archwires at the same time, one at the top of the brackets, and the other through the middle).

Looking through my old yearbooks, there was one picture where you could see that they weren't your "normal" brackets:
https://dereferer.me/?https://postimg.org/image/oc1olecmb/
I know it's not super clear, but you can see the general proportion of the brackets, and how the archwire runs through the top of them (you may have to lean back from your screen to more clearly see it, but I figured higher res and zoo)

Has anyone else seen these, know what they are, and/or seen any clearer pictures or videos of them online? At this point, I would assume my mind was playing tricks on me if not for the fact I was able to find the photo in my yearbook.
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Offline foobar

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Re: Identify type of bracket?
« Reply #1 on: 15. January 2018, 20:29:51 PM »
I guess that you mean Speedbrackets. They don't use ligatures, but instead the wire snaps directly into the bracket.
They are smaller and apparently hurt less and are faster. Also wire changes are faster due to the lack of ligatures. The ortho can "push open" all brackets, take the old wire out, put a new one in, and "close" the brackets again (or something like that).
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Offline Person

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Re: Identify type of bracket?
« Reply #2 on: 15. January 2018, 23:57:29 PM »
Based on the results I could find by searching Google for speedbrackets, I don't think what they were. Maybe they looked different back then, though (this would have been 96-99).

Like the image I posted showed, the archwire (except when I saw a kid with two archwires) went through the top of the bracket, and not the middle, even though there was a slot in the middle. And I remember at least one or two of the kids at the time having ligatures, though I don't know if these brackets always had ligatures.
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Offline HgWells

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Re: Identify type of bracket?
« Reply #3 on: 16. January 2018, 06:43:06 AM »
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Offline Thelog

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Re: Identify type of bracket?
« Reply #4 on: 16. January 2018, 11:34:21 AM »
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Offline Person

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Re: Identify type of bracket?
« Reply #5 on: 18. January 2018, 01:06:38 AM »
No, they definitely weren't Begg brackets, which I have the opposite observational experience with (I've only seen Begg brackets online, and never in person). I do appreciate you guys taking guesses, though. I've searched online before to try to find photos of the kind I'm referring to, and I've never been successful.

Here's a (bad) drawing of what I remember them looking like:
https://dereferer.me/?https://postimg.org/image/5f5td9jub/

The dark gray rectangles are the bracket, and all parts of the bracket stuck out from the tooth an equal distance (unlike the Begg brackets). Visually, they appeared to stick out further from the tooth than your stereotypical metal bracket, but that may have just been because they were narrower (maybe almost half the width the brackets I had on my front teeth?). Because of that, they looked more uncomfortable than typical brackets.

The black line is the archwire running through the slot at the top of the bracket; everyone I saw with these brackets had this archwire (including the picture I posted earlier).

The blue line is the second archwire that I saw used once; everyone else I saw with these brackets you could see the empty slot if you were talking to the person.

I didn't draw a ligature but I do remember at least one person (maybe more) with these brackets having them. There didn't appear to be any moving doors or springs that I could see, so I don't think they were self-ligating, I just can't remember if everyone I saw with them had elastic ligatures.
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