The relevance of dental research

At Dental Update, we are fortunate to be able to attract a talented and diverse group of authors. They simplify the lives of all of us by trawling through the vast dental literature in order to come up with their expert views on what it all means. This is essential, given that as long ago as 2002, it was estimated that, in order to stay current with the Prosthodontic literature, one would have to read, and absorb, eight articles per week, 52 weeks of the year, across 60 different journals!1 The authors concluded that increases in the volume of literature each year make access more difficult. In 2004, there were 6095 papers published on Orthodontics, which equates to 110 papers to read every week! It could be considered that the general dentist should be abreast of current thinking on all that pertains to general dentistry, such as, Dental Materials, Restorative Dentistry, Oral Medicine, Oral Surgery, Prosthodontics, Orthodontics, Paediatric Dentistry, Endodontics and Periodontics. Looked at like that, one can only conclude that the task of keeping up-to-date is difficult, or even impossible. Dental Update helps, but it is therefore essential that we concentrate on the research which is of greatest relevance to our everyday clinical lives.