Vinej Somaraj, Rekha P Shenoy, Ganesh Shenoy Panchmal, Praveen Jodalli, Laxminarayan Sonde

ABSTRACT

People from childhood to the elderly will seek dental care at some point of time, either for a check-up or for treatment following clinical symptoms. Dentists have an obligation to provide the most effective treatment available and use the best methods of disease prevention and diagnosis while taking financial cost and their expertise in consideration. To make clinical decisions, dentists rely on a wealth of resources including own clinical experience, textbooks, journal articles and previous educational experience. To practice modern dentistry and to educate upcoming dental care professionals, evidence-based dentistry forms an important asset. For a specific clinical question, the practice of evidence-based guidelines based on scientific evidence ensures highest standards of acceptable therapeutic care. Evidence-based dental practice is a systematic approach for obtaining the best available clinically relevant scientific evidence with the ultimate goal and intent of increasing effectiveness and efficacy in clinical decision-making. It optimizes both the patient?s benefit through the best utilization of dentist?s experience and clinical expertise and on making full use of the most reliable and valid research outcomes. Evidence-based dentistry contrasts with traditional dentistry as it relies on practice based on the evidence for its systematic stringency, coupled with its fundamental validity as a patient-centred optimization of clinical modes of interventions.