Dental Hygiene: Evidence Based Practice: Evidence Based Dentistry

• Use this button to access the ADA Center for Evidence Based Dentistry directly

• Use the above button to access ADA's Evidence Based Dentistry Series

• Click on the toolbox above to access resources such as appraisal worksheets, self evaluation guides and help with clinical question formation. Maintained by the Knowledge Translation program of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto ON

• The Cochrane Library is a collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making, and a seventh database that provides information about Cochrane groups.
  • Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
  • Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)

Systematic Review:  a research method that is designed to answer a research question by identifying, coding, appraising and synthesizing a group of studies.

Meta-analysis: a systematic method that takes data from a number of independent studies and integrates them using statistical analysis.

Randomized Control Trial (RCT): An experimental study to assess the effects of a particular variable, e.g., a drug or treatment, in which subjects are assigned randomly to an experimental, placebo, or control group.

Bias (in regard to research): A tendency of procedures in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, review or publication, to yield results or conclusions that depart from the truth.

•   Review the situation (Assess)
•   Define the clinical problem as a question (Ask)
•   Select resources, design a strategy, and search for the answer (Acquire)
•   Summarize the evidence yield (Appraise)
•   Apply the evidence (Apply)