A meta-analytic approach to determine the state of the science on implant dentistry

Meta-analyses have been widely used to estimate treatment effects in evidence-based dentistry. Few conferences, however, have used a systems approach to assure coherent data management and analysis. The purpose of this section is to describe the data management and statistical analysis for the State of the Science of Implant Dentistry (SSID) conference. This overview includes (a) a description of widely used clinical trial designs for implant dentistry, (b) a description of data management procedures specifically designed for the SSID conference, and (c) a description of the data analysis methodology, including descriptive analyses and meta-analyses. The use of the systems approach facilitated data abstraction and analysis.