The background of Evidence-Based Dentistry (EBD) and Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) begins with Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). Some of the principles behind EBM are evident throughout modern medicine, but the term EBM is relatively new. The term EBM became more widely used in the early 1990s, and was later formally defined by Sackett et al. in 1996. [1] The article “History and development of evidence-based medicine” [2] provides a timeline of the development of EBM and looks at how technology has played a large role in the advancement of EBM.

A common principle across all forms of EBP is using the best evidence available to make a decision about your patient or population. EBD, for example, not only encompasses the use of research findings, but also other dimensions of clinical decision making, such as clinical expertise, patient values, and available resources.

EBP

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an approach to health care wherein health professionals use the best evidence possible, i.e. the most appropriate information available, to make clinical decisions for individual patients....It involves complex and conscientious decision-making based not only on the available evidence but also on patient characteristics, situations, and preferences. It recognized that health care is individualized and ever changing and involves uncertainties and probabilities. [3]

EBM

Evidence based medicine is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research. [1]

EBD
The definition of Evidence-based Dentistry is very similar to that of EBP and EBM. The American Dental Association (ADA) has defined EBD as follows:

Evidence-based dentistry (EBD) is an approach to oral health care that requires the judicious integration of systematic assessments of clinically relevant scientific evidence, relating to the patient's oral and medical condition and history, with the dentist's clinical expertise and the patient's treatment needs and preferences. [4]

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