Library Newsletter Summer 2006

New Database: Dynamed
The Library is pleased to present DynaMed, a point-of-care reference designed to provide health care practitioners with the best available evidence for clinical decision making. DynaMed provides clinically oriented summaries for nearly 2000 topics, diseases, and health care issues. The producers of DynaMed monitor the content of over 500 health sciences journals and evaluate the articles for clinical relevance and scientific validity. Through this systematic review of the literature, DynaMed presents the best available evidence to health care providers.

Each record includes complete disease information:

Description / ICD-9 Codes
Causes / Risk Factors
Complications
History / Physical Description
Diagnosis / Prognosis
Treatment
Prevention / Screening
References
Patient Information

For easier access, you can download DynaMed onto a PDA. Please contact Julie Schiavo for more information. You can link to DynaMed by clicking on “Electronic Resources” in the Databases column of the dental library homepage.

LSUSD Masters Theses
Since the inception of the Master of Science in Oral Biology program at LSUSD, 27 dental advanced education students have written theses and earned the MS degree. Although the Isché Library is the main depository for all LSUHSC theses and dissertations, the dental library tries to collect copies of theses by our graduates, and with the cooperation of students, program directors, and advisors, now has 17 titles in the collection. A list of all dental theses, arranged by year and indicating if a copy is in the dental library, can be found under Resources/Resource Guides on the dental library web page. You can also locate theses and dissertations in Innopac, the library catalog, by looking up the author or title.

Featured New Titles
Functional Occlusion: From TMJ to Smile Design, by Peter E. Dawson. St. Louis: Mosby/Elsevier; 2007, $160.00.
The first publication by Peter Dawson since Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Occlusal Problems, 1989, this volume presents the concepts taught at the Dawson Center for Advanced Dental Study. Dr. Dawson attempts to clarify misconceptions about the relationship between dental occlusion and the TMJ so that dentists can achieve the Pankey goal of a “high level of predicable success.” The contents of the book are divided into three parts, Functional Harmony, Dysfunction, and Treatment, and include numerous color diagrams and photos. Judging from the popularity of Dawson’s previous book, this one will not stay on the library shelves for long.

Evidence-Based Dentistry: an Introduction, Allan Hackshaw, Elizabeth Paul, Elizabeth Davenport. Oxford: Blackwell Munksgaard; 2006, $49.99.
Dentists have to be able to evaluate research articles and know how to find the best evidence for patient care. This text is a guide to interpreting published research, not a manual on how to do research in dentistry. The first chapter presents an overview of evidence-based dentistry; the last chapter discusses systematic reviews, including how to read and interpret them. In chapters 2-8, the authors incorporate published research articles to introduce basic statistical aspects of research and various types of study designs. This book, a comprehensive overview of how to evaluate and interpret research articles in dentistry, is a valuable resource for all dental students, faculty, and practitioners.

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