[Self-ligating edgewise brackets. An overview]

During the last years both the manufactures and the orthodontists seem to show an increased interest in self-ligating brackets. This paper aims to present the history of self-ligating systems, to describe the three mostly used bracketsystems and to review the relevant literature. It seems from the existing data that self-ligating brackets have certain advantages over conventionally ligated brackets. However, the data are still thin and a high need for well designed clinical trials exist.