title: Clinical decision making - choosing between intuition, experience and scientific evidence.
abstract: Intuition usually results in poorer decisions than an evidence-based decision-making process. However, research has shown there are certain circumstances when intuition is equivalent or superior to evidence based decision-making. The first pre-requisite is domain expertise and being a dentist is insufficient - a minimum of five years additional practicing experience is needed. Intuition allows the expert to store information in subconscious frameworks and extract that data without conscious thought at a rapid rate. Decisions that have severe time constraints, problems that are complex and ambiguous in nature, and a lack of scientific evidence are some factors that are suitable for intuition-based clinical decision-making.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Patient Services, 1011 N. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48105, United States.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Nalliah
mesh_terms: D000066491:Clinical Decision-Making; D006801:Humans; D019545:Intuition