EBD Champions 200+ gather to share passion for evidence-based dentistry

They came from all over to participate in the Association’s first Evidence-Based Dentistry Champion Conference, held May 2-3 at ADA Headquarters.

More than 200 dentists, including clinicians, educators and those working in public health, attended the event, which the Journal of Evidence-Based Dentistry co-sponsored and Procter & Gamble supported with an educational grant.

Getting EBD knowledge out to the dental community is what the EBD Champions Conference was all about. An EBD Champion is a dentist who acts as a funnel for EBD in his or her community, taking the evidence-based knowledge and passing it on to their peers.

The expectation is that the Champions will serve as point persons on EBD with their peers. It’s of particular interest in smaller communities with dentists who don’t have a lot of contact with other professionals.

“This was the ADA’s first effort at recruiting EBD Champions,” said Julie Frantsve-Hawley, Ph.D., director, ADA Research Institute and Center for Evidence-based Dentistry. “We were extremely pleased to see that the interest among practitioners was overwhelming. This conference provided a unique opportunity to interact not only with the well-known EBD experts, but also with fellow practicing dentists who have implemented and championed EBD.” For those who are interested in the EBD Champion program but were not able to attend the 2008 Conference, conferences are being planned for 2009 and 2010 through the support of Procter & Gamble.

“I see a lot of value in this,” said Dr. Daniel Haghighi, who practices in Longview, Wash., of being an EBD Champion. “It was interesting at the roundtables to hear what other people are doing.”

Dr. Ellie Phillips, a general dentist from Rochester, N.Y., agreed and said she enjoyed meeting other dentists and dental educators who share her passion for the profession鈥攁nd for staying on top of the latest research. As an EBD practitioner, she learned more about evidence-based evaluation and making tools from this system of knowledge.

“I have a passion for dentistry, even after 35 years of being a dentist,” she said. “I want to know the truth and facts. I want to keep abreast of accurate and well-researched information.”

The conference goal was to give the Champions tools to promote, support, network and disseminate evidence-based research with other health professionals.

The two-day event included speaker presentations from the clinical and academic perspectives, panel discussions and question-and-answer sessions and team workshops using evidence-based scenarios.

Dr. James Bader, a professor of operative dentistry at the School of Dentistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, began the May 2 session by explaining the steps to writing systematic reviews.

Dr. Bader was part of an expert panel that included Dr. Phillipe Hujoel, a professor of dental public health sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine; the ADA’s Dr. Frantsve-Hawley; and Dr. George Merijohn, a periodontist who practices EBD in San Francisco. The opening-day panel was moderated by Dr. Ron Zentz, senior director of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs.

Dr. Michael Newman, editor of the Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice, coordinated a question-and-answer session stemming from the workshops, and Dr. Robert Weyant, editor of the Journal of Public Health Dentistry, moderated a section on how to implement EBD into practice.

The third session explored how to disseminate EBD, a Champion’s primary role. Dr. Merijohn was a moderator and speaker for the session, and other speakers were Drs. Gary Anderson and Ken Goldberg.

Implementing EBD was one of the program’s highlights as were the presentations by dentists who have done just this. Those speakers included Dr. Joseph Matthews, Dr. Jane Gillette and Dr. Michael Hoen.

Procter & Gamble was represented by Dr. Paul Warren, vice president of Global Oral Care Scientific and Professional Relations; Dr. Leslie Winston, director, North America Professional and Scientific Relations and two international P&G staff members: Dr. Lilia Mondragon of Mexico and Dr. Ken Zhang of China.

Dr. Haghighi, who practices general dentistry, thinks EBD and the implementation of it is something that can go a long way toward improving dentistry as a whole. During the conference, participants at times were assigned different workshops that included dentists from the public health setting, private practice or education.

For his part, Dr. Haghighi became interested in the topic during his postgraduate training programs. He also provides his local newspaper, The Daily News, with a monthly column on oral health.

“This has great potential for dentistry,” he said of EBD.

All participants received 11 hours of continuing education credit. For more information, visit www.ada.org/goto/ebdconf or call the toll-free number, Ext. 2519.聽