Evidence Based Dentistry (EBD)
As a progressive stakeholder in health and wellness, Dentalcare promotes the values of Evidence Based Dentistry (EBD) in our training programmes, easy to use diagnostics and treatment solutions that we offer.
We subscribe to the American Dental Association’s (ADA) definition of EDB as follows:
“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.”
The conventional approach
The conventional approach
Conventionally, EBD has been misunderstood to mean that unless a concept or claim is backed by peer-reviewed, clinically published, double-blinded randomised, meta-analysis, the data holds little weight and is often used to discredit many valid observations and outcomes.
Essentially EBD integrates 3 individual processes:
- The skill, experience and clinical expertise of the dentist,
- Patient satisfaction with the success of the process and outcome,
- Best available, appropriate published research.
Despite the understanding above, anecdotal evidence and proven clinical outcomes are dismissed as lacking any scientific validation. It has therefore become evident that this is against the definition of EBD and is incorrect.
It is suggested to always start an EBD search looking for the highest level of evidence. If a meta-analysis is not available on the topic, look next for systematic reviews without statistical synthesis, next for randomized control trials, next for cohort studies, next for case control studies, etc.
We encourage you to immerse yourself in the body of literature that we have provided and develop your evidence based treatments in line with the EBD philosophy provided. We will continue to update information as new research becomes available.