Atik 2014.

Study characteristics
Methods	Setting: Department of Orthodontics, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey Design: parallel (2 arms) No. of centres: 1 Study duration: not reported. Mean treatment duration for intervention group 13.2 months and control group 15.3 months
Participants	Inclusion criteria: “between 13 and 17 years of age at the start of the treatment, moderate maxillary and mandibular crowding, a Class I malocclusion, and a dentally constricted maxillary arch.” Exclusion criteria: not reported Participant sampling: N = 33 selected Group 1 (n = 17): 17 female (mean age of 14.5 + 1.2 years) Group 2 (n = 16): 16 female (mean age of 14.8 + 1.0 years) Sex: 100% female Dropouts: none
Interventions	Orthodontic intervention: fixed appliances and auxiliaries Self‐ligating brackets versus conventional brackets
Outcomes	Lower incisors to mandible, harms (discomfort, plaque index, gingival index and probing depth)
Notes	Funding source not cited
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Unclear method of randomisation
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Unclear if allocation sequence concealed from those assigning patients to participant groups
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Not possible to blind participants and personnel due to the different interventions used
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Quote: "The pre‐treatment and post‐treatment lateral cephalograms of each patient were traced by one examiner."
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No dropouts reported
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All outcomes reported
Other bias	Low risk	None noted