title: A clinician's perspective on evidence-based dentistry.
abstract: Evidence-based dentistry seems to be more popular with researchers and those in policy positions than with clinicians. A private practitioner looks at the difference between the promise of evidence-based dentistry, which urges a blend of science, clinical judgment, and patient preferences, and the actuality of the rhetoric of rigorous and formulaic clinical trials. The same dichotomy exists in medicine, where the concept originated. Without subscribing to the formality of evidence-based dentistry, practitioners can place a valid scientific foundation under their practices by avoiding unproven assumptions, carefully monitoring outcomes, using measures that are clinically relevant, relating both positive and negative outcomes to possible explanations, and cautiously introducing new techniques. The standards for publishing clinical research seem to favor adherence to methodological rules over useful of outcomes.
authors.affiliation: edfberg@cyberban.com
authors.forename: Edward M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Feinberg
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D018865:Dental Research; D055094:Evidence-Based Dentistry; D005792:General Practice, Dental; D006801:Humans; D058028:Research Report