Centre for Evidence Based Dentistry

The Centre for Evidence-based Dentistry was established in 1995, with the aim of promoting the teaching, learning, practice, and evaluation of evidence-based dentistry world-wide.  Initially based in Oxford, the Centre moved to the Dental Health Services Research Unit at the School of Dentistry, University of Dundee in October 2013.

A brief history of the Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry

The Centre was formed in early 1995, following a workshop on evidence-based dentistry held at Templeton College, Oxford in December 1994.

The Centre has been instrumental in establishing the Journal of Evidence-Based Dentistry. Originally published as a supplement of the British Dental Journal it became a quarterly stand-alone journal in 2000, achieving Medline recognition in 2004.

The Centre was the editorial base for the Dental Elf blog from its establishment in 2011 until 2023. 

The Centre runs courses in evidence-based dentistry ranging from half-day workshops to five-day courses both in the UK and abroad. The Centre has also given presentations and taken part in many national and international conferences.

Aims 

The main aim of the Centre is to promote the teaching, learning, practice and evaluation of evidence-based dentistry by:

• fostering a spirit of enquiry within the dental team
• encouraging and enabling the dental profession to make clinical decisions based on the best available evidence
• enabling the dental team to find valid and up to date evidence on which to base treatment decisions
• assisting in the development of better methods of disseminating quality evidence
• encouraging the development of evidence-based professional and clinical standards and an evidence-based approach to clinical audit
• facilitating evidence-based continuing professional development (CPD) involving the whole dental team
• improving the public profile of the dental profession by moving towards evidence-based practice