Critical Thinking: Understanding and Evaluating Dental Research, Third Edition

The Internet has given us access to an unprecedented amount of information, but this development also facilitates the spread of misinformation if we do not think critically and evaluate what we read. The third edition of this classic textbook has been revised based on developments in biomedical research practices over the past decade to provide readers with the most up-to-date resource for navigating the ever-expanding world of dental literature. The book covers rhetoric and logic, the scientific method, components of scientific papers, research strategies, probability and statistics, diagnostic tools and testing, and experiment design. The chapter about searching the dental literature has been updated with the most current resources and search techniques available. A new chapter about clinical decision making uses a decision tree analysis with worked-out calculations to show how critical thinking skills can be used to select the most appropriate treatment decision in a clinical scenario; this is followed by a whole chapter of exercises in critical thinking. This book emphasizes how readers can practically apply critical thinking skills to evaluate scientific literature and thereby make the most informed decisions for their patients and themselves.

About the Author

Donald Maxwell Brunette, PhD (Medical Biophysics), is a professor in the Department of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences and a former associate dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia. A founding member of the Medical Research Council (Canada) Group in periodontal physiology directed by Prof A.H. Melcher at the University of Toronto, Prof Brunette has published more than 90 articles in refereed journals and has won awards from the International Association of Dental Research, Association of Canadian Faculties of Dentistry (W.W. Wood Award for Excellence in Dental Education), and the American Medical Writers Association (for the first edition of Critical Thinking). His research encompasses several fields, including citation analysis and clinical studies of breath odor, but mainly concerns cell-biomaterial interactions. He serves as a consultant to three biomaterials-related journals as well as the American Dental Association's Council on Scientific Affairs, and he has been a member, chair, or scientific officer of grant evaluation committees of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well as the National Science Foundation (USA).