Didactic instruction

An extensive number of lectures and seminars are given by our program faculty, including formal series in pain control/sedation, medical risk assessment, oral surgery, periodontics, endodontics, pediatric dentistry, implant surgery and prosthetics, operative and prosthodontics, special patient care, and business and practice management. To supplement these, speakers from various hospital departments and from around the Chicago area are brought in on a regular basis to lecture on a wide variety of topics. Residents participate in an ACLS/BLS course, a history and physical course, and an ongoing diagnosis and treatment planning Patient Care Conference scheduled monthly throughout the residency year.

The Journal Club experience for dental residents at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center consists of a two-hour didactic session at least once a month during the residency year with the first two meetings emphasizing the basics of evidence-based healthcare. Dr. Elliot Abt, who holds a Masters in EBD and is a former ADA EBD presenter will conduct several introductory sessions on EBD, critical appraisal, and statistical analysis of dental literature. At least four hours of didactics in PICO question formulation, database searching, study design, and basic biostatistics are included to prepare residents for critically appraising the dental literature. The remaining sessions are devoted to appraising study designs near the top of the evidence pyramid. This would include randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines less than ten years since publication.

Although journal club is a didactic session, critical appraisal is not complete without a full discussion of the clinical implications of study results. Nowhere is this more crucial than for clinical practice guidelines. The guidelines from the American Dental Association are emphasized and would include updated guidelines on fluoride, sealants, oral cancer screening and prophylactic antibiotics along with other common dental issues. Journal Club sessions will require residents to have read, be prepared to discuss and critically appraise several scientific literature assignments. Residents are expected to become familiar with concepts such as statistical significance, clinical relevance, as well as common terms to express results such as mean differences, risk ratios, odds ratios and numbers needed to treat. Additional elements of evidence apart from study results are also discussed such as surrogate outcomes, baseline event rates, adverse effects, and economic implications.

The goals of these sessions are as follows:

• Develop a clear understanding of the various research designs and their application to dental research
• Develop a basic understanding of statistical analysis and limitations of statistical significance
• Critically appraise systematic reviews, randomized trails, and cohort studies
• Develop skills in understanding validity, relevance, and applicability of research