[Practice guidelines in dentistry. An insight into the Dutch situation].

Practice guidelines provide opportunities for monitoring and improving dental health care. A survey was conducted among 78 departments at dental societies, scientific dental associations and health care insurance companies in the Netherlands to obtain insight into the number and quality of practice guidelines available. The response rate was 67%. Written materials were analysed and 21 practice guidelines were identified as such. The results of the analysis indicate that many initiatives to construct and implement practice guidelines have been taken. However, these initiatives were insufficiently coordinated and existing guidelines may be subject to improvement. Main improvement would be to demonstrate the validity and reliability of the existing guidelines and, more in general, to provide a sound scientific basis to the development and implementation of practice guidelines.