Statistics for Dental Clinicians

Enables clinicians to understand how biostatistics relate and apply to dental clinical practice

Statistics for Dental Clinicians helps dental practitioners to understand and interpret the scientific literature and apply the concepts to their clinical practice. Written using clear, accessible language, the book breaks down complex statistical and study design principles and demonstrates how statistics can inform clinical practice.

Chapters cover the basic building blocks of statistics, including clinical study designs, descriptive and inferential statistical concepts, and interpretation of study results, including differentiating between clinical and statistical significance. An extensive glossary of statistical terms, as well as graphs, figures, tables, and illustrations are included throughout to improve reader comprehension. Select readings accompany each chapter.

Statistics for Dental Clinicians includes information on:

• How to understand and interpret the scientific language used in the biomedical literature and statistical concepts that underlie evidence-based dentistry
• What is statistics and why do we need it, and how to effectively apply study results to clinical practice
• Understanding and interpreting standard deviations, standard errors, p-values, confidence intervals, sample sizes, correlations, survival analyses, probabilistic-based diagnosis, regression modeling, and patient-reported outcome measures
• Understanding and interpreting absolute risks, relative risks and odds ratios, as well as randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, meta-analysis, bias and confounding

With comprehensive coverage of a broad topic, written using accessible language and shining light on statistical complexity often found in writings related to clinical topics, Statistics for Dental Clinicians is an essential guide for any dental practitioner wishing to improve their understanding of the biomedical literature.