Guidelines, Recommendations and Evidence-based Practices Resource Links


 

The National Maternal & Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC) collects and shares information about a variety of resources, including materials such as standards, guidelines, curricula, teaching guides, manuals, policies, and reports. ASTDD is collaborating with OHRC to compile resource materials related to Best Practice Approaches for state & community oral health programs. Visit the OHRC Library to search for resource materials.

• Guidelines, Recommendations and Reports
• Best Practices Initiatives, Models and Case Studies
• Evidence-Based Practices and Recommendations

Guidelines, Recommendations and Reports

The Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health
The Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health was released May 25, 2000.

Healthy People 2010
Healthy People 2010 is the prevention agenda for the Nation.

Current Trends, Core Public Health Functions and State Efforts to Improve Oral Health -- United States, 1993
The MMWR article describes the state health agencies’ focus on core functions of public health (i.e., assessment, policy development, and assurance) to improve health in the United States.

ASTDD Guidelines for State & Territorial Oral Health Programs
The Guidelines were developed to provide a framework of feasible core functions for state oral health programs.  This document includes sections on: Current Oral Health Issues, Capacity and Infrastructure, a listing of the Essential Public Health Services to Promote Oral Health in the United States, and Examples of Essential Public Health Activities.

Building Infrastructure and Capacity in State and Territorial Oral Health Programs
 The document focuses on building infrastructure and capacity for dental public health programs administered by state and territorial health agencies and assesses the resources needed to maintain fully effective dental public health programs at the state and territorial levels.

Infrastructure White Paper: Strategy for the Enhancement of a National Dental Public Health Infrastructure
The document addresses the need to establish a strong dental public health infrastructure within HRSA as a prerequisite to addressing and meeting the oral health access needs of the underserved of the Nation.

Guide to Community Preventive Services - Oral Health
Provides recommendations on population-based interventions to promote health and to prevent disease, injury, disability, and premature death, appropriate for use by communities and healthcare systems.

Recommendations for Using Fluoride to Prevent and Control Dental Caries in the United States
 The recommendations in this August 2001 report guide dental and other health-care providers, public health officials, policy makers, and the public in the use of fluoride to achieve maximum protection against dental caries while using resources efficiently and reducing the likelihood of enamel fluorosis.

American Dental Association Positions, Policies & Statements
American Dental Association positions, policies and statements include evidence-based dentistry, fluoride, sealants, and tobacco.

HRSA - Opportunities to Use Medicaid in Support of Access to Health Services
Fact sheets to assist state and local health officials in understanding how Medicaid works and how it can assure access to health services to underserved populations.

Council on Linkages: Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals
The Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals are a set of skills desirable for a broad practice of public health.


Best Practices Initiatives, Models, and Case Studies

Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) - Best Practices
AMCHP defines "best practices" as a continuum of practices, programs and plicies that range from emerging to promising to those that have been extensively evaluated and proven to be effective.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices - Children's Oral Health
The mission of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices is to help Governors and their key policy staff develop and implement innovative solutions to governance and policy challenges facing them in their states. Links are provided on the website as resources to states participating in the NGA Policy Academies on Improving Oral Health Care for Children.



Evidence-Based Practices and Recommendations

Best evidence is a term that refers to information obtained from randomized controlled clinical trials, non-randomized controlled clinical trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, crossover studies, cross-sectional studies or, in the absence of scientific evidence, the consensus opinion of experts in the appropriate fields of research or clinical practice. The strength of the evidence follows the order of the studies or opinions listed. (Source: NHS Research and Development Centre for Evidence-based Medicine)

American Dental Association (ADA) Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry
The website provides systematically assessed evidence as tools and resources to support clinical decisions. Tools and resources include systematic reviews/summaries and ADA clinical recommendations.

Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry
The Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry is an independent body whose aim is to promote evidence based dentistry world-wide. The Centre for Evidence-Based Dentistry website includes information about the Centre, news of forthcoming events, and a host of links to evidence-based tools and resources.

Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM)
The CEBM in Oxford, UK aims to develop, teach and promote evidence-based health care and provide support and resources to doctors and health professionals to help maintain the highest standards of medicine.

Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) was established in January 1994 to provide the NHS with important information on the effectiveness of treatments and the delivery and organization of health care. CRD, by offering rigorous and systematic reviews on selected topics, a database of good quality reviews and an information service, helps to promote research-based practice in the NHS.

Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library is a pioneering resource which was initiated by the Cochrane Collaboration. The collaboration was formed to prepare, maintain and disseminate reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions, as well as assessing evidence related to prevention strategies and treatment. The Cochrane Library consists of a regularly updated collection of evidence-based medicine databases, including The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Abstracts of reviews can be viewed online free of charge. 

Cochrane Oral Health Group
The Cochrane Oral Health Group is part of the Cochrane Collaboration (one of the Collaborative Review Groups). It aims to produce systematic reviews which primarily include all randomized controlled trials (RCT's) of oral health. The website lists abstracts of Cochrane Reviews produced by the Cochrane Oral Health Group.

Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library - Evidence Based Practice
Provides a guide highlighting evidence based resources and a video tutorial series on evidence based practice information.

Alaska Medical Library - Research Aids: Evidence Based Practice
Information include "The 5 Steps in the Evidence Based Practice Process" and the "Levels of Evidence" showing the relative usefulness of different types of evidence.

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries - Nursing Resources for Evidence Based Practice
Resources include glossary of key terms in evidence based medicine and tutorials on evidence based practice.

NurseGroup.com - Evidence Based Nursing
Website offers tutorials and resources on how to evaluate research evidence and study evidence based practice in nursing and health care.

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
NICE is the independent organization responsible for providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health. Its role is to provide patients, health professionals and the public with authoritative, robust and reliable guidance on current "best practice". The guidance will cover both individual health technologies and the clinical management of specific conditions.

PubMed Clinical Queries
This specialized search is intended for clinicians and has built-in search filters. Four study categories - therapy, diagnosis, etiology, prognosis - are provided, and you may indicate whether you wish your search to be more sensitive (i.e., include most relevant articles but probably including some less relevant ones) or more specific (i.e. including mostly relevant articles but probably omit a few).