Science and technology are developing so rapidly that dental practitioners have to constantly assess whether the materials and procedures they are using in their practices still represent the best treatment for their patients. But busy practitioners have little time to research these questions on their own, and their attempts to do so are frequently handicapped by the lack of in-depth training in the skills required to distinguish good science from poor science. The emergence of evidence-based dentistry, a process for ensuring that the treatment we provide our patients is justified by the best available scientific evidence, holds promise for making this problem more manageable.