Senior Teaching Fellow and General Dental Practitioner, Faculty of Dentistry and Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, London, SE1 9RT, UK.
Br Dent J. 2021 Mar;230(6):337-343. doi: 10.1038/s41415-021-2726-4. Epub 2021 Mar 26.
The General Dental Council (GDC) requires dental practitioners to provide good-quality care based on current evidence and authoritative guidance. However, this leaves the dental practitioner in a sort of limbo as good quality is an ill-defined term allowing its precise meaning to be open to interpretation. This article sets out to demonstrate that the practice of dentistry is very much more of an art than a science and, as such, relies on individual skill and judgement. It will also show that the 'value' of current evidence as determined by published papers and authoritative guidance is questionable and should not be regarded by dental practitioners as the 'rule'. The interaction between a dentist and a patient essentially consists of clinical decision-making and the implementation of that decision and, therefore, it is essential to understand the nature of decision-making and the context in which implementation takes place. Practitioners should exercise their clinical judgement, putting the interests of the patient first and not feel constrained by the threat of sanctions from the GDC or other regulatory bodies.
英国牙科总会（GDC）要求牙科从业者根据现有证据和权威指导提供高质量的护理。然而，这让牙科从业者陷入了一种困境，因为高质量是一个定义不明确的术语，其确切含义可以有多种解释。本文旨在表明，牙科实践更像是一门艺术，而不是一门科学，因此依赖于个人的技能和判断力。它还将表明，通过已发表的论文和权威指导来确定的“现有证据”的“价值”是值得怀疑的，牙科从业者不应该将其视为“规则”。牙医和患者之间的互动本质上包括临床决策以及决策的实施，因此，了解决策的性质以及实施的背景至关重要。从业者应该运用他们的临床判断，把患者的利益放在首位，而不要因为受到 GDC 或其他监管机构的制裁威胁而感到受到限制。
