title: Clinical research-the silent partner in dental practice.
abstract: For 5,000 years innovative researchers, often anonymously, have been providing dentists and their antecedents with a rich inheritance of information, techniques, and materials. The giants of dental research of the past can still serve as role models today. This paper presents a history of clinical research and relates past work to current and future trends. In the last few decades, both technical innovation and oral biology and prevention have been progressing at an accelerated rate to provide a steady influx of new answers to dental practitioners and to elicit new questions from the next generation of dental investigators.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University, School of Dental and Oral Surgery, New York 10032.
authors.forename: I D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Mandel
mesh_terms: D000766:Anesthesia, Dental / Q000266:history; D003748:Dental Equipment / Q000266:history; D003764:Dental Materials / Q000266:history; D004534:Egypt; D005060:Europe; D006115:Greece; D006665:History of Dentistry; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D007558:Italy; D012106:Research / Q000266:history; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D003764:Dental Materials