Volume 51 • Issue 6 • 2006 327

tistry. However, clinical applications are limited by the smallimage size and patient privacy regulations.

Discussion.—The iPod is ubiquitous today and has al-ready made inroads into dental educational settings. Theconvenience of the medium, as well as its ease of use,makes it likely that dentistry will use these devices in morediverse settings.

Gater L: Are iPods another way to learn and share dentistry? AGDImpact April, pp 22-23, 2006

Reprints available from the Academy of General Dentistry. Fax your request to Jo Posselt (312/440-4261) or e-mail AGDJournal@agd.org

Clinical Significance.—Tapes are nothingnew. Video has been a useful forum for continu-ing education but requires sitting in front of atelevision. Audio, compatible with working-out,driving, etc, is more versatile. You can do stuffwhile you listen. Again, nothing new but for thecompact, lightweight, and ease of loading mate-rial possible with iPods.

Background.—The graphically sophisticated and high-ly powered iPods are ideal for the multidimensional imag-ing used by today’s medical community and are becominguseful in dentistry as well. Students at the University ofMichigan (UM) School of Dentistry began downloadingclassroom lectures onto their computers last fall, thentransferred them to their iPods or MP3 players so theycould listen to them anytime they chose. Sixty dental stu-dents were surveyed and stated that they preferred to lis-ten to audio recordings of lectures compared to video withaudio or PowerPoint files and that they preferred to usetheir iPods for the accessibility and convenience. Studentscan also replay the lectures as needed, which may improvecomprehension. Professors can spend class time integrat-ing knowledge through conversation and creative assign-ments when the lectures are available on iPods.

Dental Practice.—Dentists have an obligation to staycurrent with changes in the profession. They meet this re-quirement by taking continuing education (CE) courses.For some this means traveling to dental meetings; for oth-ers it is possible to take courses close to home. If the useof iPods catches on with practicing dentists, they may pre-fer to listen to their CE courses while they exercise, travel,or drive to the office. Newly graduated dentists are likely tocontinue to use their iPods to further their knowledge ofdentistry and may inaugurate the change in CE for den-

Background.—Choosing which materials to use fordental restorative techniques has become increasingly dif-ficult because of the plethora of materials available and thelack of supporting evidence, especially for the newest ones.Few clinical trials of materials have been properly con-structed so that the practitioner can clearly trust the re-sults. Evidence does exist, but it requires that experts in thefields gather and evaluate information from varioussources, then convey that information to practicing clini-cians in an appropriate manner. Practicing clinicians have

so many roles to play that it is a major challenge to keep upwith the latest literature on various materials and methods.Both the expert and the clinician must critically evaluatethe scientific validity of the available evidence.

Information Sources.—The power or validity of infor-mation varies depending on the source, with prospectiveclinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals beingconsidered the most authoritative. However, the clinicianmust remember that publication does not necessarily

Using iPods in dentistry

Evidence-Based CareSelecting restorative materials