Braces have been around for quite a long time, originating as far back as BC. Of course the braces of the stone age were nothing compared to the technology we have available today. Braces have been an important part of oral hygiene and making sure that teeth stay healthy that even Aristotle wrote about braces and looking for a way to straighten teeth back in his day. But modern orthodontics wasn't recognized as an official science until as long as the late 1880s!
The braces that we know today were not invented by one individual. The complex history of the orthodontic science was contributed to by many different orthodontists over the years and all of them together helped to create what we call braces. The history of modern braces started with a book called "The Surgeon Dentist," published in 1728. This book contained a whole chapter on the different ways of straightening teeth. Though these methods would not have been considered to be braces, they were the foundations for the development of the technology of straightening teeth. Another book published in 1957 and titled "The Dentist's Art" is also considered a great beginning to the world of tooth alignment by oral appliance. These were the first books to give a worthy overview of the new science of orthodontics.