EVIDENCE BASED DENTISTRY 0011–8532/02 $15.00  .00 THERAPY Anecdote, Experience, or Evidence? Gary R. Goldstein DDS, and Jack D. Preston, DDS How does a practitioner determine what therapy to use? Often, the decision depends on the age of the practitioner and the experiences gained in practice. The younger practitioner depends mainly on what was taught in dental school. All dental schools have a core technique, usually derived by faculty consensus, that allows a student to develop competency in one approach to a therapeutic problem. Trying to teach a novice multiple techniques usually results in the student’s mastering none. Educators have agreed that teaching one technique well allows the student to enter practice and satisfy the needs of the public. Unfortu- nately, dental schools have been unfairly criticized as teaching outdated and often unrealistic techniques. This criticism is not true. Dental school faculty almost universally teach time-tested and scientifically sound procedures. Ethics dictate that patients in dental schools be protected and not subject to whimsical trends in treatment. Internal review boards mandate that research be structured to ensure the patient’s rights are preserved. The clinician, unencumbered by such constraints, often makes forays into other treatment modalities, some successful, others disap- pointing. Once in practice, the clinician is influenced by observations based on experience. Such observations, however, are often flawed, and associations thought to be causal are instead, only casual. Anecdotal evidence from colleagues may mold decision-making. With the broad communication now possible using with the internet, such anecdotes may come from a continent away and from a completely unknown From the Department of Prosthodontics, New York University College of Dentistry; De- partment of Dental Material Science, New York University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York, New York (GRG); and The University of Southern California School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, California (JDP) DENTAL CLINICS OF NORTH AMERICA VOLUME 46 • NUMBER 1 • JANUARY 2002 21