EVIDENCE-BASED DENTISTRY: WHAT IS IT AND HOW CAN EBD IMPACT THE WAY WE PRACTICE DENTISTRY?

What is evidenced-based dentistry? How can it impact the way we practice dentistry?

Over the last couple of decades, evidence –based health care has evolved to become an important approach in medicine and dentistry that relies on the systematic review of scientific literature to help health professionals assimilate/translate new evidence into practice.   Evidence-based dentistry has become a respected approach in dentistry that promotes a systematic assessment of the scientific evidence, combined with an understanding of patient preference and dental practitioner’s clinical knowledge and experience to help the dental professional make sound clinical decisions about oral health measures that provide the best care for their patients.

This discussion panel will provide an overview of the principles of evidence-based dentistry and how today EBD can be a significant tool to help the dental practitioner provide the best personalized oral care, assess appropriate therapeutic agents and evaluate emerging clinical approaches and technologies for optimum patient care.  There will also be a perspective on the impact of EBD as a model that could be utilized in the future to help shape health policy/ strategies and the practice of dentistry.

Participants will learn:

• Review the principles of evidence-based dentistry providing case studies and other examples from the Cochrane Review Library that demonstrate how evidenced-based medicine and dentistry have been instrumental in facilitating health care choices that health care professionals, policy makers, industry and others face in a changing technological world.
• Provide a short overview of how the Cochrane Collaboration conducts systematic reviews utilizing an evidence-based review process.