The strongest resources to aid dental professionals in clinical decision-making. Developed by an expert panel, clinical practice guidelines critically appraise, summarize, and interpret recent and relevant clinical evidence to provide recommendations that can be applied to patient care. Explore current clinical practice guidelines below.
Clinical Practice Guidelines and Dental Evidence
Our collection of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, systematic reviews, and primary studies that will help you improve your practice.
Clinical practice guidelines
Recommendations for managing acute dental pain in children, adolescents and adults after tooth extraction(s) or for the temporary management of toothache.
Recommendations for the use of 16 restorative caries treatments – which direct restorative materials and caries removal approaches to use.
Clinical recommendations for the use of nine nonrestorative caries treatments, including the ADA's first-ever recommendations for silver diamine fluoride (SDF).
The latest recommendations for antibiotic usage in the urgent management of pulpal- and periapical-related dental pain and intra-oral swelling.
Recommendations from the American Heart Association on the use of antibiotics to prevent infective endocarditis.
Recommendations for the use of antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent orthopaedic implant infection in dental patients.
Updated guideline recommending a unified message to the general public regarding fluoride toothpaste usage for children under six years of age.
Clinical recommendations for the use of agents such as sucrose-free polyol chewing gums, xylitol dentifrices, and chlorhexidine in preventing caries.
Current recommendations for evaluating lesions, including potentially malignant disorders, in the oral cavity of patients.
ADA panel recommendations for nonsurgical treatment of chronic periodontitis by means of scaling and root planing with or without adjuncts.
Expert panel recommendations for the use of pit-and-fissure sealants to prevent caries.
ADA panel recommendations for various topical fluoride agents for caries prevention, including mouth rinses, varnishes, gels, foams and pastes.
Systematic reviews
Like clinical practice guidelines, systematic reviews critically appraise and summarize the scientific literature in regards to a specific clinical question. Unlike guidelines, which then use the literature to make clinical recommendations, systematic reviews leave the job of interpreting their results up to the discretion of dental practitioners. Explore our collection of current systematic reviews below.
Preradiotherapy dental treatment’s effect on the risk of osteoradionecrosis of the jaw during oncologic treatment.
Use of communication systems and information-based technologies to promote oral health.
Technologies to detect and inform the diagnosis of initial caries.
Analyzing HPV vaccine effectiveness against vaccine-type HPV infection and HPV-associated cellular changes.
Primary studies
The ADA provides relevant research data that you can use for clinical decision making. Explore the most recent and trending topics below.
How to overcome common challenges to guideline adoption in dental practice.
Assessing the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms among dental health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of August 2021, 75.4% of hygienists had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a higher proportion than the general public and health care workers overall.
Education
Want to learn how to incorporate the latest scientific evidence into clinical practice? Check out these educational opportunities offered by the ADA Science and Research Institute.
Explore various instructional videos that help illustrate certain evidence-based dentistry techniques and clinical procedures.
Learn how both dental teams and educators can harness the power of the latest scientific information and apply it to patient care.
Evidence-Based Dentistry
ADA Policy Statement on Evidence-Based Dentistry: The ADA defines the term evidence-based dentistry as an approach to oral health care that requires the judicious integration of systematic assessments of clinically relevant scientific evidence, relating to the patient’s oral and medical condition and history, with the dentist’s clinical expertise and the patient’s treatment needs and preferences.