Teaching Evidence-Based Practice: Considerations for Dental Education

The motivation for teaching evidence-based practice is that, through the use of high-quality clinically relevant evidence, clinicians will make rationale decision that optimally improve patient health outcomes. Achieving that goal requires clinicians who are able to answer patient care-relevant clinical questions efficiently, which means that they must be able rapidly to retrieve, assess, and apply evidence of direct relevance to their patients. Educational programs designed to accomplish this vary in their effectiveness. This article reviews the evidence on educational approaches that may be beneficial when developing educational programs for both dental students and practicing dentists.