RESUMO
BACKGROUND: One of the key aspects of improving the dental care we offer to our patients is in basing our practice on the best available evidence. AIM: The main purpose of this paper is to present some basic ways of searching reliable papers on Internet and to introduce some techniques to facilitate the development of strategic search skill to improve the quality of dental care, using dental trauma as an example. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After formulation of a clinical question on a dental trauma issue, a comparison was made between: data collected in PubMed using a given term; data collected in PubMed using the Medical Subject Headings vocabulary (Mesh) and data collected using the principles of evidence-based research, all by an independent researcher. A number of papers searched about a clinical question on dental trauma and a brief commentary about each Internet research database is presented. The authors reported that the best sites available to perform the sample search were those produced by academic centers, professional organizations and government-sponsored. To get evidence-based clinical papers we did internet search on PubMed, Cochrane, Center of Evidence-Based Dentistry and Knowledge Finder using the clinical question "Emergency Treatment for Avulsed Tooth". RESULTS: All searched databases were efficient for scientific journals, but when we used the PI strategy, the search seemed to be more relevant and specific. The Cochrane, Center of Evidence-Based Dentistry and Knowledge Finder presented more reliable papers to answer our clinical question about dental trauma treatment. CONCLUSION: It is imperative that dentists understand the advantages of searching the Internet and learning to use it effectively to guide practice and assist their patients in their pursuit for better oral health.