The History of Braces

The American dentist John N. Farrar is credited with inventing braces. In 1876, he published the first paper that described how brace appliances could be used to move and correct teeth. Along with his colleagues Norman W. Kingsley and Edward H. Angle, Farrar established the field of orthodontics, a specialty field focused on diagnosing, preventing, and correcting tooth and jaw problems. Their work paved the way for the modern orthodontics that we rely on today.