Since necessity is the mother of invention, it should really come as no surprise when two people, working independently, arrive at the same solution at practically the same time.
History gives us countless examples. Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray, and the telephone. Thomas Edison, Joseph Swan, and the light bulb. And pertinently, Chuck Hull, Hideo Kodama, and 3D printing. What drove each of these people to create what they created was a need. A need for greater communication. A need for light. A need to make things that could never be made before.
In Boston, the scale of the breakthrough may not quite match all of these feats, but the pattern remains the same.
More than a decade ago, Drs Alfred Griffin and Chris Jackson both observed an opportunity to break the mould in the orthodontic sector. Advancements in 3D printing technology were opening up the potential for orthodontic brackets to be made specific to the patient rather than in standard sets, and Drs Griffin and Jackson got to work.
Dr Jackson had pivoted from her mechanical engineering background into the dental world, qualifying as an orthodontist and quickly realising that the metal injection-moulded (MIM) braces being deployed to straighten teeth had barely changed in 50 years. During her orthodontic residency, Dr Jackson did her master's thesis into 3D metal printing, and it was at this point that she realised it was the manufacturing technology preventing braces from reaching 'the next level.'
Dr Griffin, meanwhile, had reached a similar conclusion, but he had identified ceramics as having more immediately acceptable parameters, precision, and surface finish for braces. He was right. By 2019, having enlisted the support of Harvard's Wyss Institute to bring his ceramic-based idea to life, LightForce Orthodontics was founded, and the LightBracket Ceramic product launched a year later.
