Fixed appliance attachments (the brackets) can be made from tooth coloured ceramic materials in order to reduce their visual impact. Such appliances are commonly termed ‘ceramic fixed appliances’. Conventional ceramic fixed appliances use small elastics to hold the wire into the bracket and self-ligating brackets use an integral clip mechanism that secures the wire into position. The small elastics used with conventional fixed appliances can discolour in-between visits particularly with foods containing bright colouring.
The wires used to align teeth are commonly termed ‘archwires’. These
are made of metal (stainless steel or nickel-titanium) materials.
They can be covered with tooth coloured coatings to make them less
obvious. However, these coatings do have a tendency to decay between
visits and may slow tooth movement.