J Am Dent Assoc. 2015 Jan;146(1):42-49.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.adaj.2014.11.010. Epub 2014 Dec 18.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW:
Dental
practitioners spend most of their time administering treatments. To
ensure that their clinical decisions are informed by the best available
evidence, dental practitioners need to be skilled in critically
appraising studies addressing therapy issues. Randomized controlled
trials offer the optimal study design to inform decisions regarding
therapy. The critical appraisal of randomized controlled trials involves
assessing the risk of bias, results, and applicability. In this
article, the authors present these concepts and provide guidance for
this type of appraisal.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS:
Dentists
who wish to inform their clinical decisions regarding therapy and
prevention questions can use these guidelines to decide what type of
studies to search, define the specific question of interest to search
efficiently for these studies, and critically appraise an article about
therapy or prevention.
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