Evidence-Based Dental Practice: A Primer for the Dental Professional

Dentistry is a rapidly evolving profession where new diagnostic and treatment modalities become available at an accelerating rate. You need to be able to access and assess information critical to making wise clinical decisions.

Evidence-based Dentistry: Why and How-to Guide
Examples of evaluating important ideas and technologies. Types of studies used to establish cause of disease and impact of new and existing treatments. By focusing on patient population, intervention under consideration, control and assessing outcome in clinical study results. Application of evidence to dentistry has grown beyond evaluation of preventive methods to applying evidence-based principles to difficult treatment planning decisions such as when and how to replace teeth. We will evaluate new technologies and advertising claims.

Evaluating Evidence Concerning the
Link between Dental and Systemic Health
Patients frequently ask about links between their oral health and overall health. Is there a link between periodontal disease and cardiovascular conditions?  Is diabetes affected by dental health? We will discuss the types of studies that can shed light on these important questions; and methods to evaluate the quality of evidence.

Evaluating Diagnostics Devices and Procedures
We will discuss metrics of diagnostic performance and types of clinical studies that can compare various diagnostic modalities. Examples of using these metrics to select tests and devices will be drawn from caries, periodontal disease, cancer and the world of medicine.

Solving clinical problems using EBD methods and skills
Each participant is encouraged to bring a clinical question to the afternoon session. Participants are also encouraged to bring their laptop computers. With the assistance of the faculty, the participant’s clinical question will be put into a PICO format identifying patient population, intervention, control and outcome. The participants will then search for the relevant clinical studies and systematic reviews that can guide clinical decision making. This final session should provide the participants with the opportunity to discuss and utilize the literature to solve problems concerning patient management.

Both Drs. Markowitz and Strickland have attended American Dental Association courses in evidence-based dentistry