Treatment Efficiency with Self-Ligating Brackets: The Clinical Evidence

Self-ligating brackets have seen a great reemergence mainly as a result of the introduction of purportedly more efficient appliances as well as the marketing efforts of orthodontic companies to promote innovative products and differentiate themselves in the marketplace. The Speed bracket (Strite Industries, Ltd, Cambridge, Ontario), introduced in the early 1980s, was the first viable product, whereas now almost all major orthodontic companies offer a self-ligating bracket to their customers. Several capabilities/advantages over conventional brackets have been attributed to the self-ligating appliances without the accompanied evidence to support the claims. In this article, we will cover the available evidence in the orthodontic literature that deals with the clinical efficiency of the self-ligating brackets.