The Keeper of the Meaning and the Era of Evidence Based Dentistry

The AAPD has stated that the clinical practice of pediatric dentistry has to be driven by science and evidence-based dentistry (EBD). However, our specialty must recognize the need for both EBD and age proven clinical experience. An amalgam of art and science is required, each respecting the other's important contribution and recognizing that neither alone is as good as the whole. Being a Keeper of the Meaning means handing on the values of the past to the future. The foundations of patient care are composed of both EBD and past clinical experience. Over time the clinician develops clinical intuition based on these foundations which results in optimum patient care. Pediatric dentistry will remain as much an art form as a science for the foreseeable future. There are clinical techniques and approaches successfully used for scores of years that the scientific method might never be able to validate but that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have great value. The greatest weakness of the EBD movement is that there is no measure for clinical skill and experience. And yet, clinical success equals clinical skill and experience.