RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The type of brackets is closely related to the efficiency of orthodontic treatment. A self-ligating bracket is characterized by low friction, simple operation, mild pain and discomfort, and it has been an issue of concern in orthodontics. In recent years, studies on the therapeutic efficiency of self-ligating brackets versus conventional brackets for orthodontic correction have been reported, but there is no conclusion. OBJECTIVE: To systematically compare the conventional and self-ligating brackets concerning treatment efficiency. METHODS: A computer-based search of PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, WanFang, VIP and CNKI was performed for randomized controlled trials concerning self-ligating brackets versus conventional brackets for orthodontic correction. The keywords were "orthodontic brackets/ self-ligating, random" in English and "appliance/self-ligating/ conventional/orthodontic correction efficiency" in Chinese. The retrieve time was set from inception to December 2017. Stata12.0 software was used for meta-analysis following literature screening, data extraction and risk assessment of bias. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 9 randomized controlled trials involving 603 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis on the efficiency of the two groups showed that there was no significant difference in overall treatment time, number of visits, time of alignment and time of space closure (P ＞ 0.05). Only the time of chairside operation showed significant difference between the two groups (P ＜ 0.05). These findings indicate that compared with the conventional bracket, the self-ligating bracket has no obvious advantage in the therapeutic efficiency.