Systematic review on self-ligating vs. conventional brackets: initial pain, number of visits, treatment time.

OBJECTIVE: Meta-analysis of differences between conventional and self-ligating brackets concerning pain during tooth movement, number of patient visits, total treatment duration, and ligation times. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Online search in Medline, Embase, and Central focused on randomized clinical trials and controlled clinical studies published between 1996 and 2012. RESULTS: Four studies on pain met our inclusion criteria, two on the number of appointments, two on overall treatment time but none on ligation times. Pain levels did not differ significantly between patients treated with conventional or self-ligating brackets after 4 h, 24 h, 3 and 7 days. The number of appointments and total treatment times revealed no significant differences between self-ligating and conventional brackets. CONCLUSION: The lack of significant overall effects apparent in this meta-analysis contradicts evidence-based statements on the advantages of self-ligating brackets over conventional ones regarding discomfort during initial orthodontic therapy, number of appointments, and total treatment time. Due to the limited number of studies included, further randomized controlled clinical trials are required to deliver more data and to substantiate evidence-based conclusions on differences between the two bracket types considering orthodontic pain, number of visits, treatment, and ligation times.