Evaluating restorative materials and procedures in dental practice.

A wide variety of research methods are appropriate to general dental practice, including clinical trials of materials, assessment of materials and techniques, treatment trends, and assessment of behavior and attitudes, of dentists as well as patients. This paper will describe the use of practice-based networks to evaluate the effectiveness of materials and techniques in dental practice. Several practice-based research groups are presently in operation in the UK and the USA, generally carrying out evaluations of the handling of materials, but with increasing emphasis on the clinical evaluation of restorations. Use of the Dental Practice Board (of England and Wales) database has proved to be a fruitful source of data on the long-term outcome of restorations. Dental practice can provide the large pool of patients available for research. To utilize this pool of patients, dental practitioners and their support staff require training in collecting data.