News

After many years of continuous research and efforts to enhance the technologies used in the
medical field, a scientific team composed of the dean of College of Dentistry Prof. Ibrahim
bin Sulaiman Al-Shahrani and the consultant orthodontist at King Faisal Medical City in
Abha Dr. Ali bin Hasan Al-Haizaey, succeeded in filing their second invention patent in the
Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property for their invention of adjustable brackets. The device
is to act as an essential component of the orthodontic appliances, which control the tightness
of the braces brackets.

The invented bracket has many features, among which is reducing waste material and
maintaining the origins of the roots of the teeth. Further, the idea of the invention is based on
the need to update the orthodontic brackets, which was invented in 1972 and is still to this day
used in its original design.

On their part, Al-Shahrani and Al-Haizaey, explained that the idea behind their invention was
finalized after many stages, which started by highlighting the problem of the treatment
duration, caused by the imprecision of brackets. After making certain that there is a solution,
sketches and a prototype design to emulate the function of the bracket were made.
Subsequently, a patent request was submitted to the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property
to be reviewed and eventually they were granted the patent.

Al-Sharani and Al-Haizaey thanked the Graduate Studies and Scientific Research Agency in
King Khalid University for their support and for facilitating the process of patent registration.
Along these lines, they also expressed their gratitude to the Saudi Authority for Intellectual
Property.

It is worth noting that this scientific team has worked on projects since 2019 with the aim of
finding solutions to medical technologies in the field of dentistry. The first step was to
compile a list of technical problems found in orthodontic appliances and, therefore, work on
resolving those problems. Consequently, a patent was granted to the team in 2020 for
inventing a tool to adjust the height of brackets. In the same vein, another patent was
registered for a bracket with a separate base. These inventions seek to find solutions to
technical tool problems used in the dentistry field and to build upon existing ideas, which in
their regard will contribute to manufacture presentable and easy to maintain orthodontic
brackets during the treatment process.