PracticeUpdate Clinical Dentistry Channel covers latest clinical advances for dentists on the go

The PracticeUpdate Clinical Dentistry Channel offers a one-stop shop for busy dentists and their teams looking to keep up to date on the latest clinical research findings they can employ in their practices.

The American Dental Association and Elsevier, publisher of The Journal of the American Dental Association, launched the web channel in May. It offers free clinical content in general dentistry and specialty topics curated by a world-renowned editorial and advisory board and provides relevant information on the connection between oral and systemic health from the other 11 PracticeUpdate channels covering different medical specialties.

Dr. Newman

"The Clinical Dentistry Channel has a team of expert reviewers who search dental and relevant medical literature, select articles and summarize them in a 'take home message' that includes both the summary and a conclusion, offering a quick read and a bottom line," said Dr. Michael Newman, editor-in-chief of the channel. "By selecting articles from highly rated journals, we improve the quality of the selection."

The Clinical Dentistry Channel features updates from peer-reviewed journals, news and educational resources 24/7. It is the only dental channel offered by PracticeUpdate, a free service for dentists, physicians and other clinicians.

"Busy clinicians are bombarded with an overload of information on a daily basis, making it harder for them to keep track of recent advances," said Dr. Satheesh Elangovan, associate editor of the channel. "PracticeUpdate is aimed at bringing expert-curated updates from recently published, relevant clinical articles from a wide range of dental and medical disciplines to keep clinicians abreast of clinical advances."

Dr. Elangovan

The Clinical Dentistry Channel's editorial and advisory board — which includes Drs. Newman, Elangovan and Donald Curtis, associate editor, as well as other expert advisers — decides which of the articles selected by the reviewers to include on the channel and who should provide commentary on them.

"We are gratified with the tremendous interest and participation by the world's leading key opinion leaders in dentistry, dental hygiene, nursing and medicine because they add a level of trustworthiness and perspective that may not be able to be found in one authoritative place like the PracticeUpdate Clinical Dentistry Channel," Dr. Newman said. "We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and participation of these world-renowned leaders. And what a great opportunity for our readers to get this level of expertise in one place covering a very broad and relevant subject matter."

The board also works with the leaders of the other channels to help create a bridge between clinical dentistry and other areas of medicine.

"We are very interested in bringing useful and important medical information to the dental profession as part of the oral-systemic interface our patients live in every day," Dr. Newman said. "PracticeUpdate Clinical Dentistry puts down an important marker for dentistry’s position and role in precision health care. It takes its place among the other PracticeUpdate medical channels as an equal member of the PracticeUpdate lineup. We have been able to showcase many of our take home messages on these medical channels, raising the integrated role dentistry plays in overall health care. We are at the table as an equal partner."

Offering content that connects clinical dentistry to other areas of medicine benefits dentists who may not be looking for that information on their own.

Dr. Curtis

"In reading the literature on professional development, when clinicians choose their sources of continuing education courses or articles to read, they often pick the information of interest to them rather than information they should be informed about," Dr. Curtis said. "By having a broad menu of carefully selected articles with expert commentary, the messaging and relevance become more powerful and helpful to the clinician."

The integration of dentistry and overall health has been evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. PracticeUpdate has a COVID-19 Disease Spotlight page with expert commentary provided by the channels, including Clinical Dentistry. While the Clinical Dentistry Channel has picked up content provided by the other channels, those channels have also reposted contributions from Clinical Dentistry.

"It is a proud moment for the dental profession," Dr. Newman said.

The Clinical Dentistry Channel aims to be at the forefront of clinical advances in dentistry, and its editors expect to see the most rapidly advancing therapies in regenerative dentistry, personalized dentistry, diagnostics, risk assessment and digital dentistry, including teledentistry and digital workflows.

Moving forward, the channel is looking to expand its content by adding a platform for experts to comment on their approach to managing a specific clinical situation and covering dental conferences, Dr. Elangovan said. Dr. Curtis said he also hopes to see the channel used in dental education.

"We want PracticeUpdate Clinical Dentistry to be a go-to resource for clinicians when it comes to recent advances in clinical dentistry," Dr. Elangovan said. "We hope that the very concept and framework of PracticeUpdate Clinical Dentistry will allow us to achieve this goal as we get more exposure in the dental community."

Dentists can sign up for their free PracticeUpdate account at clinicaldentistry.practiceupdate.com.