Orthodontic Appliance with Encoded Information Formed in the Base

An edgewise orthodontic bracket comprising:

• a body comprising gingival and occlusal tie wings defining a labially opening archwire slot therebetween, each of the gingival and occlusal tie wings having a mesial/distal extent, said gingival wing comprising a gingivally-extending center leg and gingivally-extending mesial and distal wing tip portions, wherein said gingivally-extending center leg extends a greater distance from said archwire slot than each of said gingivally-extending mesial and distal wing tip portions, said occlusal wing comprising an occlusally-extending center leg and occlusally-extending mesial and distal wing tip portions, wherein said occlusally-extending center leg extends a greater distance from said archwire slot than each of said occlusally-extending mesial and distal wing tip portions;
• a first set of gingival and occlusal notches, the gingival notch being disposed within the mesial/distal extent of said gingival tie wing and the occlusal notch being disposed within the mesial/distal extent of said occlusal tie wing;
• a second set of gingival and occlusal notches, the gingival notch being disposed within the mesial/distal extent of said gingival tie wing and the occlusal notch being disposed within the mesial/distal extent of said occlusal tie wing, said first set of notches being disposed on a mesial side of said bracket and said second set of notches being disposed on a distal side of said bracket;
• and a base interconnected to said body, said base having a substantially continuous pattern of characters and intermediate space, said base including a discontinuous perimeter rail;
• and at least one auxiliary slot, said at least one auxiliary slot including said pattern of characters, wherein said characters are alpha/numeric and convey to a user of said bracket information selected from the group consisting of:
• model number, manufacturer, date of manufacture, lot number, distributor, placement data, and bracket data.

An edgewise orthodontic bracket comprising:

• a body including gingival and occlusal tie wings defining a labially opening archwire slot therebetween, said archwire slot having opposing sidewalls and an adjoining floor;
• a first convex portion extending labially from said floor and across said archwire slot;
• a first auxiliary slot positioned under said convex portion;
• a base interconnected to said body, said base having a substantially continuous pattern of characters and intermediate space, said base including a discontinuous perimeter rail, said characters and said perimeter rail interrupted by said first auxiliary slot;
• and at least one auxiliary slot, said at least one auxiliary slot including said pattern of characters, wherein said characters are alpha/numeric and convey to a user of said bracket information selected from the group consisting of:
• model number, manufacturer, date of manufacture, lot number, distributor, placement data, and bracket data.