Abstract

ZANELLA, Luana; SERRAGLIO, Carla Regina  and  RODRIGUES JUNIOR, Sinval Adalberto. Contributing elements for the application of Evidence-Based Dentistry: part II. RFO UPF [online]. 2016, vol.21, n.2, pp. 278-288. ISSN 1413-4012.

Aiming to apply the Evidence-Based Dentistry (EBD) model in daily practice, the dental professional should know some concepts of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. Objective: This study presents the elements involved in the quantitative generation of evidence from the analysis of primary studies, assessment of risk of bias of such studies, and determination of the quality of evidence produced. Literature review: Randomized controlled clinical trials (RCCTs) represent the best study design to determine the therapeutic effectiveness of health technologies, producing data that allow calculating the mean difference among therapeutic groups, relative risk, or odds ratio. Such measures of size effect along with their confidence intervals are produced in systematic reviews through meta-analysis and allow determining the most recommended therapeutic alternative for each clinical situation. Meta-analysis also produces information on the heterogeneity of data obtained. Systematic reviews should also synthetize the quality of information provided by primary studies and of the evidence produced. This is possible with instruments such as the Cochrane Collaboration for assessing risk of bias, and GRADE. The latter allows assessing the quality of evidence produced, focused on the outcome. Final considerations: This series of two studies aimed to equip students and Dentistry professionals to visualize their practice under the EBD model, presenting elements of the construction and analysis of systematic reviews and RCCTs. This study focused on elements related to data analysis and quality assessment of the evidence produced.

Keywords : Epidemiology.; Evidence-Based Dentistry.; Evidence-Based Clinical Practice..