What is Evidence Base Dentistry
The American Dental Association defines evidence based dentistry as:
"an approach to oral health care that requires the judicious integration of systematic assessments of clinically relevant scientific evidence, relating to the patient's oral and medical condition and history, with the dentist's clinical expertise and the patient's treatment needs and preferences."
EBD integrates:
- the dentist's expertise,
- the best available scientific evidence,
- and the patient's needs and preferences.
EBD 5 Step Process
The EBD process is a structured approach to identifying and using the best information relevant to a particular clinical problem. It follows these 5 steps:
- Question
Articulate a clear question based on the patient's clinical problem. - Find
Conduct a comprehensive search for the latest relevant research - Appraise
Critically assess the evidence - Act
Use the best identified valid and relevant evidence in patient care - Evaluate
Assess how well the previous steps worked
ADA - Clinical Practice Guidelines and Dental Evidence
The American Dental Association provides evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, systematic reviews, and primary studies to "help you improve your practice."
You should also turn to databases such as PubMed or Cochrane Library when you do not find your topic in the ADA's guidelines. Check also the library guide on Systematic Reviews.
Evidence Based Dentistry Web-Resources
Boston Medical Center Introduction to Evidence-Based Dentistry - from this tutorial you will learn: how EBD is defined; about clinical evidence resources; the scope of evidence-based practice; and the steps in the EBD process.
Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry - this British organization provides guidance for practicing EBD as well as conducting research for evidence and systematic reviews. A practical resource for scientific evidence. Includes systematic reviews and clinical recommendations. Updates, opportunities to participate in review panels and more
Cochrane Oral Health Group - Established in 1996, the Group has over 800 authors who collaborate on creating systematic reviews, which are included in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The Cochrane Oral Health Review Group comprises an international network of healthcare professionals, researchers and consumers preparing, maintaining, and disseminating systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials in oral health.
Evidence-based Medicine Toolbox - Glossary of EBM terms from the Knowledge Translation Program.
How to Research Your Dentistry Essay - an online tutorial compiled by Margaret Fulford for University of Toronto students includes practical suggestions, examples, search tips, and links to useful resources
National Guideline Clearinghouse - The National Guideline Clearinghouse is a public comprehensive database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Nature Publishing Group - This introductory page for its journal Evidence-Based Dentistry provides featured free articles. For all issues check here.
TRIP Database - Evidence-based medical and dental resources from systematic searches of the internet, reports in the literature, self-reporting by site owners and other recommendations. Because the sites are evaluated by an in-house team of information experts and clinicians and external experts to assess quality and clinical usefulness its search has potential to be more focus and relevant than a Google or Google Scholar search. Also has separate sections for medical images and patient information leaflets.
University of Adelaide - Its EBD guide gives an overview of evidence-based healthcare with some dental examples. It emphasizes how to search for articles using electronic databases PubMed, Embase, Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source and Cochrane Library.
University of Toronto - ADA Evidence-based Dentistry Tutorials
Evidence Based Dental Blogs
The number of published research articles in clinical dentistry grows larger each year. Analysis shows that even in specific subject areas publication is spread across many journal titles.
The Dental Elf is a daily blog maintained by the editor of Evidence Based Dentistry. It provides brief summaries highlighting evidence-based publications relevant to dental practice.
TOP: The Orthodontic Professors "is a curated site dedicated to providing evidence-based professional opinion from experts in the field...(the) mission is to promote the use of best evidence in clinical orthodontics and orthodontic education."
Series of Articles from the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association
A series of free articles published in the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association (JCDA) titled "The Building Blocks of Evidence-Based Dentistry" by Susan E. Sutherland are a useful explanation of the EBD process.
• Sutherland SE. (2001) Evidence based dentistry: Part I Getting started. Journal of the Canadian Dental Association. 67(4): 204-06. PMID: 11370277
• Sutherland SE, Walker S. (2001) Evidence based dentistry: Part II Searching for answers to clinical questions: How to use MEDLINE. Journal of the Canadian Dental Association. 67(5): 277-80. PMID: 11398391
• Sutherland SE. Evidence based dentistry: Part III Searching for answers to clinical questions: Finding evidence on the Internet Journal of the Canadian Dental Association. 67(6): 320-3. PMID: 11450294
• Sutherland SE. (2001) Evidence based dentistry: Part IV Research design and levels of evidence.Journal of the Canadian Dental Association. 67(7) 375-78. PMID: 11468093
• Sutherland SE. Evidence based dentistry: Part V Critical appraisal of the dental literature: Papers about therapy. Journal of the Canadian Dental Association.67(8); 442-5. PMID: 1583604
• Sutherland SE. (2001) Evidence based dentistry: Part VI Critical appraisal of the dental literature: Papers about diagnosis, etiology and prognosis. Journal of Canadian Dental Association. 67(10) 582-5. PMID: 11737981