first recorded the treatment of teeth by finger pressure. Unfortunately, due to lack of evidence, poor preservation of bodies, and primitive technology, little research was carried out on dental braces until around the 17th century, although dentistry was making great advancements as a profession by then. 18th century Orthodontics truly began developing in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1669, French dentist Pierre Fauchard, who is often credited with inventing modern orthodontics, published a book entitled "The Surgeon Dentist" on methods of straightening teeth. Fauchard, in his practice, used a device called a "Bandeau", a horseshoe-shaped piece of iron that helped expand the palate. In 1754, another French dentist, Louis Bourdet, dentist to the King of France, followed Fauchard's book with The Dentist's Art, which also dedicated a chapter to tooth alignment and application. He perfected the "Bandeau" and was the first dentist on record to recommend extraction of the premolar teeth to alleviate crowding and to improve jaw growth. 19th century Although teeth and palate straightening and/or pulling was used to improve alignment of remaining teeth and had been practised since early times, orthodontics, as a science of its own, did not really exist until the mid-19th century. Several important dentists helped to advance dental braces with specific instruments and tools that allowed braces to be improved. In 1819, Christophe François Delabarre introduced the wire crib, which marked the birth of contemporary orthodontics, and gum elastics were first employed by Maynard in 1843. Tucker was the first to cut rubber bands from rubber tubing in 1850. Dentist, writer, artist, and sculptor Norman William Kingsley in 1858 wrote the first article on orthodontics and in 1880, his book, Treatise on Oral Deformities, was published. A dentist named John Nutting Farrar is credited for writing two volumes entitled, A Treatise on the Irregularities of the Teeth and Their Corrections and was the first to suggest the use of mild force at timed intervals to move teeth. 20th century In the early 20th century, Edward Angle devised the first simple classification system for malocclusions, such as Class I, Class II, and so on. His classification system is still used today as a way for dentists to describe how crooked teeth are, what way teeth are pointing, and how teeth fit together. Angle contributed greatly to the design of orthodontic and dental appliances, making many simplifications. He founded the first school and college