Dental Hygiene: Evidence-Based Practice basics

PICO - What's it all mean?

Types of evidence refer to the types of journal articles found when searching. 

Different types of journals articles are:

• Randomized Control Trials (RCT)
• Systematic reviews
• Review articles
• Clinical guidelines
• Cohort studies
• Case studies
• Case series 

The higher up on the pyramid the evidence, the better the evidence.

When using the word evidence - think of the word research or journal articles.  The better type of research to answer a question, the better the answer.

Example: 

You have a journal article about bruxism which is an RCT (Randomized Controlled Trial) and a Case series on bruxism.  Which one is better?  The RCT!  Why?  It's higher on the evidence pyramid.

There are many different kinds of EBM pyramids.  The above is just 1 example.