Wearing braces comes with many benefits from a better smile to improved oral health, but most brace-wearers count down the days to getting them removed. That's why the development of the AcceleDent carries such potential for orthodontic patients across the country.

A team of doctors at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio created the AcceleDent, a gadget with a mouthpiece and a 4-inch stand, and they believe its low-frequency vibrations will enhance metabolism in bone tissue around the teeth. Such pulsations, which doctors claim are barely noticeable and not painful, could allow the teeth to straighten more quickly and effectively than braces alone.

While vibration therapy, which has been around since the 1800s, is nothing new, such an application is a direct descendant of a NASA choice to use vibration to combat muscle atrophy during extended periods of weightlessness. Astronauts were instructed to stand on a lightly vibrating plate for 10 to 20 minutes each day while in orbit.

"We're taking this same concept and applying it to the orthodontic process," says Dr. Dubravko Pavlin, an associate professor of orthodontics at the Health Science Center. "We believe the application of cyclic loading [controlled vibrations] will not only increase the rate of tooth movement, but will also create a solid foundation of bone and adjacent tissues in the mouth and result in more stable outcomes for orthodontic treatment."

Thirty-four patients ages 12-40 were instructed to wear the AcceleDent after standard orthodontic care and application of braces. Doctors provided the patients with the AcceleDent and told them to bite down on the mouthpiece, about as thick as a wafer, for 20 minutes. The device runs on battery power, and results were convincing enough to bring it to market in the United Kingdom later this year. It is expected to be available on a limited bases in the U.S. in 2010.

About one million of the five million Americans who wear braces are adults.