Abstract: The invention describes a composite palatal arch for the correction of the position of teeth, which is built up from a plurality of wire sections (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) made from different materials. One of the materials is a shape-memory alloy that assumes a superelastic state at the temperatures prevailing in a human mouth. The palatal arch comprises two end sections (2, 3), which are intended to fix the palatal arch in a tooth lock (16, 17) and which are made from of a normal-elastic material. The superelastic section (4, 5) of the arch is softer than are the normal-elastic sections (1, 2, 3). The superelastic material is present only in two intermediate sections (4, 5) between the two end sections (2, 3) and a central section (1), the two intermediate sections (4, 5) are each arranged adjacent one of the end sections (2, 3), and the central section (1) of the palatal arch consists of a normal-elastic material.