Decision analysis in dentistry.

Objective To review publications in dentistry of decision analyses during the last 30 years. Data sources Medline 1969-1998 and hand-searching of reference lists of retrieved publications. Study selection Articles presenting a decision analysis with utilities and sensitivity analyses were included. Data extraction and synthesis A quality assessment of the included studies but no formal synthesis due to the range of clinical applications considered. Results Sixty-seven articles were identified with 22 fulfilling the criteria for inclusion. Conclusions Decision analyses publications in dentistry have declined in recent years. The quality of decision analyses in dentistry is variable. Improvement in this promising technique will depend on improvement in the quality of basic research data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]