Objective To systematically review the effectiveness and safety of power chain vs. nickel titanium coil springs in closing dental extraction space. Methods Databases including PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Chinese Biomedicine Literature Database, Chinese Scientific Journals Full-text Database, and Chinese Journal Full-text Database were searched to collect the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on comparing power chain with nickel titanium coil springs published before February 2012. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the quality of the included studies. Then meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.0 software. Results A total of 4 RCTs involving 122 patients were included. The results of meta-analyses showed that there was a significant difference in the rate of space closure between the two groups (MD=0.30 mm per month, 95%CI 0.17 to 0.44, Plt;0.000 1); The results of subgroup analyses indicated that, both high-quality trials (MD=0.20, 95%CI 0.07 to 0.34, P=0.003) and low quality trials (MD=0.40, 95%CI 0.30 to 0.50, Plt;0.000 01) showed no significant difference in the rate of space closure. Conclusion Current clinical evidence indicates nickel titanium coil spring is superior to power chain in the rate of space closure, but its long-term effect still needs to be proved by more large-scale RCTs.