The growing interest in lingual orthodontics is perhaps a reflection of the social and esthetic issues of orthodontics being addressed as more adults seek treatment. The issue remains confounded by the clinical manipulation of the appliance, the patient comfort, and the predictability of outcomes. For any technique or system to succeed, it must address the above three issues directly.The evidence available on lingual orthodontics traces a very clear and predictable pattern. The 80's were devoted to the limitation and progression of the concept, the 90's to the comparison between labial and lingual, and the evolution of laboratory technique and bracket system. The last decade focuses on innovations, predictability of outcomes, the impact of white spot lesion (WSL), and the patient acceptability.The purpose of this review is to investigate the current evidence and implications of lingual orthodontics. The electronic database search was done on PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, EBSCOhost, Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar reporting on appliance design, bonding, and laboratory setup, biomechanics, survey studies, case reports, and treatment outcomes.
An InsIght Into hIstoRy of LInguAL oRthodontIcsLingual orthodontics started in 1970's when Fujita in Japan and Kurtz in the USA used lingual brackets for the first time. It made a sensational debut as lingual brackets were invisible, and the number of initiated cases increased exponentially. A few years later, the number of lingual orthodontic cases decreased greatly. The reason was very clear; most doctors could not achieve satisfactory results with lingual orthodontics. Following this, initial development and expansion of lingual orthodontics in the 1990s, interest, particularly in the United States, decreased, probably due to the poor results of completed cases. [1] As time passed and problem-solving associated with lingual orthodontics was improved, lingual orthodontics expanded