Frictional resistance in self-ligating orthodontic brackets and conventionally ligated brackets. A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To compare the amount of expressed frictional resistance between orthodontic self-ligating brackets and conventionally ligated brackets in vitro as reported in the literature. METHODS Several electronic databases (Medline, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science) were searched without limits. In vitro studies that addressed friction of self-ligating brackets compared with conventionally ligated brackets were selected and reviewed. In addition, a search was performed by going through the reference lists of the selected articles to identify any paper that could have been missed by the electronic searches. RESULTS A total of 70 papers from the electronic database searches and 3 papers from the secondary search were initially obtained. After applying the selection criteria, only 19 papers were included in this review. A wide range of methods were applied. CONCLUSIONS Compared with conventional brackets, self-ligating brackets produce lower friction when coupled with small round archwires in the absence of tipping and/or torque in an ideally aligned arch. Sufficient evidence was not found to claim that with large rectangular wires, in the presence of tipping and/or torque and in arches with considerable malocclusion, self-ligating brackets produce lower friction compared with conventional brackets.