The First Patient to Wear LightForce's 3D-Printed Metal Braces Got Her Treatment Done in 7.5 Months

A Vice President Became the First Test Case

When Katie Doran was a teenager, she spent years in braces, wore headgear, and cycled through retainers. By the time her teeth shifted again in adulthood, she had written off orthodontics for good. Clear aligners during the pandemic did not help. An orthodontist told her she probably needed jaw surgery before another round of braces, then roughly 18 months of treatment.

Instead, she became the first patient to receive LightForce's fully customized 3D printed metal brackets. Seven and a half months later, her treatment was finished just in time for her wedding.

Doran is Vice President of Physical Operations at LightForce. She already knew how the brackets were made. Living through the treatment as a patient, though, gave her a completely different view of what customized orthodontics actually feels like from the chair.

How the Process Works

The workflow starts with a digital scan at the orthodontist's office. LightForce builds a digital treatment plan that maps exactly how each tooth should move. From that plan, the company designs and 3D prints a unique metal bracket for every single tooth. The brackets are manufactured in-house at LightForce's facility in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

This is not a process that prints molds or casting patterns. LightForce prints the final metal brackets directly. Every patient receives a completely customized set, with the prescription for each tooth baked into the bracket geometry before the first layer is sintered or machined.

Six Visits, No Surgery

Traditional braces rely on standard brackets mounted on every tooth. Orthodontists then spend months bending wires and repositioning brackets to fine-tune the result. Customized brackets flip that workflow. The treatment plan carries the prescription, so there is less adjustment needed as the case progresses.

For Doran, the difference was stark. Her teenage treatment took years. This time, the entire process took seven and a half months and required only six appointments. Each follow-up lasted about 10 to 15 minutes. She walked in, they pulled up her digital plan, swapped the arch wire, took a progress photo, and she left.

Her treatment also corrected a Class III bite without surgery, which she had not expected. The customized brackets allowed her orthodontist to move teeth in ways that standard stock brackets could not achieve.

Why Custom Brackets Change the Appointment

Traditional braces are bonded one bracket at a time. LightForce uses a custom indirect bonding tray that positions all the brackets at once during placement. That cuts down on chair time and improves accuracy because the tray holds every bracket in its planned position simultaneously.

Because the customized brackets could be placed lower on her teeth, Doran avoided bite turbos, the small plastic ramps sometimes bonded to the front teeth to keep patients from biting directly onto the brackets. That detail sounds small, but it changed her comfort level during the first few weeks of treatment.

The Patient Perspective

Doran says she cared far more about how the brackets felt in her mouth than about how they were manufactured. Most patients feel the same way. The manufacturing process is impressive, but the real benefit is that it enables results that traditional manufacturing simply cannot deliver.

Dr. Bryan Lockhart, an orthodontist who has worked with LightForce since the company's early days, sees customized brackets as the next stage in orthodontics. Hand-bent wires and stock brackets with built-in prescriptions were improvements in their time. Personalized brackets are the natural next step.

For Doran, the proof was practical: fewer appointments, less time in the chair, no surgery, and braces off before her wedding. The technology made that possible. The patient experience is what mattered.