Biostatistical consultation for dental research.

Dental science researchers do not really need a detailed, ready-at-hand knowledge of statistics to design and perform high quality scientific research. Although the acquisition and utilization of such knowledge by dental researchers is not discouraged, it is proposed that it is more important for dental researchers to be committed to developing and maintaining a long term, ongoing, interactive consulting relationship with a biostatistician. The nature of this relationship will depend in large part on the complexity of the dental research being conducted. While the statistical consultant will assist in interpreting analytic results for the dental researcher, the latter will need to provide extensive input in assisting in the estimation of sample size and power, and for expressing scientific hypotheses in statistical terms so that the appropriate data analytic methodology can be specified.