A novel orthodontic bracket system includes orthodontic appliances, such as brackets or buccal tubes, with a vertical instead of the conventional horizontal slot orientation. The occlusal-gingival slot orientation minimizes the risk of unintentional debonding of the bracket as a result of insertion and removal of the archwire. An archwire retention mechanism designed to guide, retain and/or seat the archwire. The archwire retention mechanism releases the archwire from the archwire slot whenever appropriate force is applied, or manipulation of physical properties of the material are altered by the operator.