Home-LightForce Launches Innovative Orthodontic Metal Brackets
The 2026 edition of ourAMA: Energy online conferencereturns on April 30th. Register now!
Custom 3D printed orthodontic brackets providerLightForce Orthodonticshas launched LightBracket Metal, a patient-specific 3D printed metal bracket the company describes as the first of its kind.
It extends LightForce’s individualized bracket system beyond ceramics and into the segment that accounts for 65% of orthodontic patients worldwide.
That is a meaningful shift in scope. A source cited by the provider states that theglobal orthodontic marketis worth $4.7 billion, and metal brackets are what 65% of patients choose, including teenagers. LightForce’s existing ceramic system has already shown what the underlying approach can do, cutting appointments by up to 60% and treatment times by up to 43% compared to conventional braces.
LightBracket Metal is the company’s attempt to bring those same results to the part of the market it had not yet reached.
“For more than a century, orthodontics relied on a stock bracket for patients who were never stock. LightBracket Metal changes the order of things. We’re giving doctors the most exact instrument they’ve ever had for the work they were born to do,” said Dr. Alfred Griffin, founder and CEO of LightForce Orthodontics.
The Engineering Behind Generative Braces
The product sits within what LightForce calls “generative braces,” a category built on one central idea: the treatment plan is the input, and the bracket is the output.
Each bracket is generated from the orthodontist’s digital plan and individualized across six parameters, covering the bracket base, slot height, slot prescription, bracket position, tie wings, and hooks. The base is shaped to the morphology of the specific tooth it will bond to.
Source: 3D Printing Industry
