[Principles of evidence-based medicine applied to dentistry]

During the past decades, major methodological developments have taken place with regard to the clinical domains of etiology, diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. As a result scientific journals set increasingly high standards for publications and the research designs on which they are based. The development of evidence based guidelines for clinical practice in oral health care has increased as well. An evidence based programme for clinical practice consists of a number of steps, the first of which is a search strategy which will lead to the identification of relevant publications, based on an answerable clinical question. After a critical evaluation of such publications according to their validity, reliability and applicability, the evidence can be judged. This evidence is subsequently incorporated in the formulation of an answer to the clinical question and its application to the individual patient. As a result of social developments, the increasing assertiveness of the patient as a clinical consumer and economizing in recent years on the part of (the Dutch) government and insurance companies, the impact of evidence derived from medical and oral health literature on clinical practice has increased enormously. It is, nevertheless, the clinician who makes the judgements, takes the decisions and accepts responsibility for them, on the basis of the available evidence and the quality of that evidence, the preferences and values of the patient, the specific clinical situation and social developments.