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Custom 3D printed orthodontic brackets provider LightForce Orthodontics has launched LightBracket Metal, a patient-specific 3D printed metal bracket the company describes as the first of its kind.
It extends LightForce’s individualized bracket system beyond ceramics and into the segment that accounts for 65% of orthodontic patients worldwide.
That is a meaningful shift in scope. A source cited by the provider states that the global orthodontic market is worth $4.7 billion, and metal brackets are what 65% of patients choose, including teenagers. LightForce’s existing ceramic system has already shown what the underlying approach can do, cutting appointments by up to 60% and treatment times by up to 43% compared to conventional braces.
LightBracket Metal is the company’s attempt to bring those same results to the part of the market it had not yet reached.
“For more than a century, orthodontics relied on a stock bracket for patients who were never stock. LightBracket Metal changes the order of things. We’re giving doctors the most exact instrument they’ve ever had for the work they were born to do,” said Dr. Alfred Griffin, founder and CEO of LightForce Orthodontics.
The Engineering Behind Generative Braces
The product sits within what LightForce calls “generative braces,” a category built on one central idea: the treatment plan is the input, and the bracket is the output.
Each bracket is generated from the orthodontist’s digital plan and individualized across six parameters, covering the bracket base, slot height, slot prescription, bracket position, tie wings, and hooks. The base is shaped to the morphology of the specific tooth it will bond to.
Three slot sizes are available, .018”, .020”, and .022”, with bidimensional combinations, and the indirect bonding trays are generated algorithmically, which allows bonding to be delegated to clinical staff.
That last point matters because it gets at what separates this from conventional orthodontics. With standard brackets, the prescription is fixed and the clinician compensates for individual patient variation through manual adjustments across multiple appointments.
LightForce moves that work upstream, building the variation into the bracket itself before it ever reaches the chair.
Located in the United States, the company operates what it describes as the world’s largest facility for directly 3D printed functional medical devices by volume. The ceramic bracket system was where that manufacturing model was first validated. LightBracket Metal uses a proprietary metal 3D printing process, though LightForce has not disclosed the specific technology involved.
The rollout to practices is now underway. LightForce will show the product publicly for the first time at the American Association of Orthodontists Annual Session in Orlando from May 1 through 3, 2026, followed by a clinical webinar on May 7 featuring Griffin and a case review from contributing doctors.
Building a Foundation for Scale
LightForce launched its first 3D printed ceramic bracket system in 2019 with FDA clearance, built on a light-based 3D printing process and cloud-based treatment planning software. A $14 million Series B followed in September 2020, led by Tyche Partners with participation from Matrix Partners and AM Ventures, with capital directed at scaling operations to meet growing demand.
A $50 million Series C led by Kleiner Perkins came in November 2021, a year in which the company posted 500% revenue growth and tripled its team. Kleiner Perkins’ involvement was notable: the firm had previously invested in Invisalign’s maker Align Technology, and described LightForce investment as the “second wave of orthodontics digitization” after backing the first through clear aligners.
An $80 million Series D led by Ally Bridge Group followed in August 2023, with funds directed at scaling production through a new facility and advancing AI in its workflows. Through all of that, the ceramic bracket remained the company’s only product. LightBracket Metal is the first time LightForce has extended its manufacturing platform to a different bracket material.
Until now, LightForce’s individualized manufacturing model had been primarily established through its ceramic bracket system. Expanding into the metal segment, which comprises 65% of the orthodontic market, is more than a product extension; it is the point at which the generative braces model is tested at the scale of the majority market.
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Featured image shows LightBracket Metal alongside LightForce’s treatment planning software. Image via LightForce Orthodontics.
