Effects of self-ligating brackets on oral hygiene and discomfort: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials.

Self-ligating brackets (SLBs) are widely adopted in clinic owing to their claimed superiorities. Here, we collected and analysed all randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) comparing SLBs with conventional brackets (CBs) and thereby investigated whether SLBs can relieve discomfort or promote oral hygiene.