Self ligating brackets: from past to present

Abstract

Self-ligating brackets, as the name suggests, do not use any steel ligature wires or elastic ligature modules in holding the archwires into the bracket slots. Rather they have their own mechanics of holding the archwire, either by a clip already in the bracket or a sliding lock mechanic in the bracket. These brackets can be active or passive depending on how the wire is engaged in between the slot and the self-ligating mechanism. In this review article, various systems of self-ligating brackets have been shown as they have been introduced from the past since their introduction in the early 1930s to the present.