Dental trauma: an evidence-based approach to care.
BACKGROUND
One of the key aspects of improving the dental care we offer to our patients is in basing our practice on the best available evidence.


OBJECTIVE
The main purpose of this paper is to present some basic ways of searching reliable papers on Internet and to introduce some techniques to facilitate the development of strategic search skill to improve the quality of dental care, using dental trauma as an example.


METHODS
After formulation of a clinical question on a dental trauma issue, a comparison was made between: data collected in PubMed using a given term; data collected in PubMed using the Medical Subject Headings vocabulary (Mesh) and data collected using the principles of evidence-based research, all by an independent researcher. A number of papers searched about a clinical question on dental trauma and a brief commentary about each Internet research database is presented. The authors reported that the best sites available to perform the sample search were those produced by academic centers, professional organizations and government-sponsored. To get evidence-based clinical papers we did internet search on PubMed, Cochrane, Center of Evidence-Based Dentistry and Knowledge Finder using the clinical question "Emergency Treatment for Avulsed Tooth".


RESULTS
All searched databases were efficient for scientific journals, but when we used the PI strategy, the search seemed to be more relevant and specific. The Cochrane, Center of Evidence-Based Dentistry and Knowledge Finder presented more reliable papers to answer our clinical question about dental trauma treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
It is imperative that dentists understand the advantages of searching the Internet and learning to use it effectively to guide practice and assist their patients in their pursuit for better oral health.
de França Caldas
Arnaldo
A
Department of Dental Public Health, University of Pernambuco, Brazil. caldasjr@alldeia.com.br
Soriano
Evelyne Pessoa
EP
Rosenblatt
Aronita
A
de Melo
Eduardo Henriques
EH
de Miranda Coelho
Luiz Gutenberg Toledo
LG
D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018865:Dental Research / Q000379:methods*; D055094:Evidence-Based Dentistry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009055:Mouth / Q000293:injuries; D018677:Tooth Injuries / Q000628:therapy*