How to Use Evidence-Based Dental Practices to Improve Your Clinical Decision Making, Excerpt 5 Preface Evidence-based medicine was first articulated in the early 1990s1, and by 19952, articles on evidence-based dentistry (EBD) were starting to appear in the dental literature. While the uptake of EBD approaches and improvements in the quality of dental research have been slower than early adopters of the concepts would have hoped for, this has not been for lack of support from the American Dental Association. The establishment of the ADA Center for EBD and its development of a definition for EBD (that is, a patient-centered approach to treatment decisions, which provides personalized dental care based on the most current scientific knowledge3) have been important milestones along the road to a more evidence-based dental profession. The ADA has actively promoted EBD in its journal, The Journal of the American Dental Association, and organized EBD courses and workshops for a number of years. The ADA EBD website also provides a broad range of helpful EBD resources, including a number of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, chairside guides, and videos. Since 1995, Cochrane Oral Health has produced around 150 systematic reviews that have clarified not only what we know but also what is still uncertain in many areas of dentistry. In addition to Cochrane reviews, there has been a significant increase in dentistry’s overall number of systematic reviews, which more often than not identify gaps in knowledge and limitations in the quality of our primary research. All of this means that it is important to continue teaching the key skills of the evidence- based approach, including how to search for and critically appraise evidence as well as how to translate this evidence into the practice of dentists and the wider dental team. While courses and conferences can stimulate and excite interest in a subject, having a tangible resource that pulls short, informative, how-to articles together in a practical format is a great help for teachers and students alike. That is why I believe this book will prove invaluable to the dental community. Derek Richards, M.Sc., D.D.P.H. Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry School of Dentistry University of Dundee Dundee, Scotland, U.K. References 1. Guyatt GH. “Evidence-based medicine.” ACP J Club 1991 114(ACP J Club, suppl 2):A-16. 2. Richards D, Lawrence A. “Evidence based dentistry.” Br Dent J 1995 179(7):270-273. 3. “About EBD. ” ADA Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry. https://ebd.ADA.org/en/about. Accessed March 5, 2019.