ADA honors leaders in evidence-based dentistry

EBD Accomplished Faculty Award

Dr. Gilbert is a distinguished professor and the chair of the department of clinical and community sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry. He also serves as the founding director of the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network, which connects clinical researchers with dental practitioners, creating partnerships that allow working dental offices with real patients to be used in the evaluation of existing and novel strategies for improving oral health.

To date, the network has conducted more than 50 studies and published more than 190 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles that advance the scientific basis for clinical decision-making and foster the movement of scientific evidence into routine clinical practice. These studies have investigated a broad range of clinical topics using a wide variety of study designs.

EBD Mid-Career Faculty Award

Dr. Scott is an associate professor in the Office of Research & Graduate Programs at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry. She is one of only a few biostatisticians in the country with a primary appointment in a dental school, and she has used her position to support more than 100 faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, residents and students in conducting high-quality oral health research that advances the evidence base for the dental profession.

In the classroom, Dr. Scott teaches residents and graduate students the critical thinking skills needed to assess research articles and their statistical analysis methods, helping to produce clinicians capable of providing evidence-based oral health care.

EBD Practice Award

Dr. Keels is a full-time practicing dentist at Duke Street Pediatric Dentistry in Durham, North Carolina, and a provider of general anesthesia services at nearby Duke Health. She also serves as an adjunct associate professor of pediatrics and associate consulting professor of surgery at Duke University Medical Center; an adjunct professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and an adjunct associate professor of dentistry at the University of Rochester.

During her tenure as a member of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs, Dr. Keels chaired the subcommittee that oversaw the ADA's evidence-based dentistry program. She currently serves on the expert panel developing the upcoming ADA guideline on restorative caries treatments, as well as the expert panel updating the ADA and U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recommendations for dental radiographic examinations. Dr. Keels was a coauthor of the 2019 ADA book "How to Use Evidence-Based Dental Practices to Improve Your Clinical Decision-Making."