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Dental Hygiene & Dental Assisting Overview

Guide created to support research in dental hygiene & dental assisting at TCC

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)

What is Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)?

According to p. 38 of the ADHA Policy Manual (American Dental Hygienists’ Association, 2024, 1-07),
evidence-based practice is:

"The conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual clients. The practice of evidence-based dental hygiene requires the integration of individual clinical expertise and client preferences with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research." 


Source: American Dental Hygienists’ Association. (2024). ADHA Policy Manual (adopted June 2024). https://www.adha.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ADHA-Policy-Manual-FY-24.pdf   

Clinical Questions - Using PICO

Use PICO to develop a focused clinical research question:

P
Patient, Population, 
or Problem
I
Intervention
 
C
Comparison
 
O
Outcome
 

Example PICO question:

For healthy, school-aged children, are powered toothbrushes or manual toothbrushes more effective for plaque reduction?

  • P = healthy, school-aged children
  • I = powered toothbrushes
  • C = manual toothbrushes
  • O = plaque reduction

Now use the different pieces identified in your PICO question to develop your search strategy.

Evidence Pyramid

Hierarchy of Evidence (evidence pyramid) figure showing hierarchy of evidence from base to top: animal studies/laboratory studies, case series/case reports, cross-sectional studies, case control studies, cohort studies, randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, meta-analysis.

When searching the research, consider how the research study design affects the strength of the evidence.

Also consider what type of clinical question you are asking (etiology, treatment/therapy, prognosis, etc.). Different study designs are recommended to address different types of questions.

 

Image source: Evidence-Based Practice: Study Design - Hierarchy of Evidence from Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The image portrays a hierarchical "Evidence Pyramid," a diagram illustrating the different levels of evidence based on research study design. The pyramid is divided horizontally into eight sections, each representing a type of study. The bottom six levels have a white background. The base level of the pyramid is "Animal Studies / Laboratory Studies". Above that, from bottom to top, are: "Case Series / Case Reports", "Cross-Sectional Studies", "Case Control Studies", and "Cohort Studies". A bracket to the side of the pyramid labels these studies as "Observational Studies". The level above that is "Randomized Controlled Trials". A bracket to the side of the pyramid labels it as "Experimental Studies". The top two levels have a blue background and are “Systematic Reviews” followed by "Meta-Analysis" at the top of the pyramid. A bracket to the side of the pyramid labels these as "Synthesized Evidence". Going up the left side of the pyramid, an arrow and text indicate the increasing "Quality of Information" from bottom to top. At the pyramid’s bottom, an arrow labeled "Amount of Information" spans the width of the pyramid, which decreases with each level from bottom to top.

Narrow Your Results

While many of the databases have options to limit your results to peer reviewed journals or by publication date, the medical or health science databases have specific options relevant to these fields. For example:

  • CINAHL Complete and PubMed both have options to limit the publication type (CINAHL Complete) or article type (PubMed) to Meta Analysis, Systematic Review, Randomized Controlled Trial, etc. which could be helpful to be able to quickly locate results toward the top of the evidence pyramid or of a specific study design.
  • CINAHL Complete and PubMed also have options to limit to specific age groups, which could be helpful to narrow your results to those relevant to a certain population (for example: children, older adults) 

Additional Resources

  • Click on the tab for additional resources.
  • To access library resources, use your TCC email and password when prompted to log in.

Listed below are some titles available in the collection that may be helpful for understanding evidence-based dentistry, research, and critically appraising the evidence. Search the library catalog to find more.

Keep in mind guides and tutorials from other libraries will link to and/or make reference to their own resources. TCC may or may not have access to the same or similar resources. Check the TCC library website to see if we have access to a specific resource.