If you have the right instruments and know what you are doing, it's easy.  Your dad's pliers in the garage is not the right answer.

First he places a large diameter chain around the feet of the patient, lifts the kid up until their head is off the floor about three feet and then slowly lowers them into boiling nitric acid.  This slowly eats away the head and leaves a perfectly clean and shiny set of braces. Not buying that one?

Well, how about he uses a special set of pliers to squeeze the curve on the back of the braces and that breaks the bond to the plastic adhesive.  Each bracket is "popped" off clean, which leaves a layer of the bonding plastic on the tooth.  He then uses a high speed handpiece to smooth the plastic off the teeth and polish the enamel where the plastic was removed.  It's all very easy, takes about fifteen minutes and leaves perfectly white and shiny teeth where braces had been only minutes before.  Yes, he gives you your braces to take home with you.  He does not recycle anything in his office.

It is essential the gum tissue be clean and healthy before he will remove braces.  Swollen and infected gum tissue is going to bleed and he is not to be bled upon.  So, if you are getting your braces off at Dr. Echols', make sure the tissue is perfectly healthy.