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Using an Evidence-based Approach to Making Patient Recommendations for Power Toothbrushes

Course Number: 648

Other Resources

The internet contains a wealth of information for dental professionals and patients, yet much of it may be inaccurate and biased so caution is warranted in verifying its accuracy, and source-checking is recommended. Conducting a Google search may identify a wide range of citations. Unfortunately, you will not know if they take you to a research article on PubMed or represent an individual’s personal opinion (the lowest level of evidence) until you click on them. Again, caution is advised. Ultimately, the dental professional must evaluate the information, and if accurate and relevant, apply it and evaluate the outcome. The internet also offers many resources for consumer information on products or links to product information, however, finding research that supports the products can be very difficult. For example, Quip offers no research and SmileDirect cites previous research on manual vs. power toothbrushes, some of which does not directly support the use of sonic technology.13