In project groups or on your own, create a literature review that will provide background information for your table clinic project. Please upload one submission (per group) and review the attached instructions and grading rubric prior to submission. Please see the end of this page for examples.
A literature review is a descriptive summary of research on a topic that has previously been studied. The purpose of a literature review is to inform readers of the significant knowledge and ideas that have been established on an oral health prevention topic. Its purpose is to compare, contrast and/or connect findings that were identified when reviewing researchers’ work. Your literature review will provide resources and supporting evidence for the prevention topic you have selected for your table clinic.
Steps to complete your literature review:
Choose an oral health disease prevention topic that you are interested in studying (ex. include sealants, fluoride, trauma prevention, smokeless tobacco, HPV and oral cancer etc.)
Formulate an inquiry question that specifically describes what would like to know about your educational topic (ex. how to sealants prevent decay?, what are ways to treat dental trauma and tooth avulsion?)
Go to the library/PubMed online to search for and locate journals that include your topic’s information.
Find at least 5 educational, evidence-based journal articles (not Wikipedia or WebMD), and aim to select articles published within the last 10 years.
Select at least 5 journal articles and cite them on your reference page.
Read selected articles and begin to sort and classify them according to their findings.
Organize your articles by sorting and classifying their findings in a meaningful way, always considering your original topic and inquiry question.
Write your review write a 3-4 page literature review on the articles you’ve selected.
Outline for writing your literature review (please type up and submit via canvas)
Introduction
The introduction is used to establish the context of your review to the reader. To establish the context, it is important to do the following in this opening paragraph:
Define the topic of your study (ex. sealants, fluoride, preventing dental caries) and provide any background information that helps your reader to understand the topic.
Explain your reason (perspective) for reviewing the literature on this topic.
State your inquiry question for this review. (Ex. How does fluoride work to prevent dental caries?)
Body
This section of your paper begins with an explanation of how you have organized your literature review and describes findings from articles that provide answers to your inquiry question. Before you begin this section, be sure that you have sorted your articles into different themes based on the articles’ findings (sometimes called results). Write an introduction paragraph for the body of your review. This paragraph tells the reader specific information on how many articles you reviewed and how you sorted the articles into common themes based on the findings (results).
Summary
This is the last paragraph of your literature review. In this paragraph, it is important to summarize the main findings from the articles that you reviewed and to point out the information that you found particularly important to know that answered the inquiry question that you established in the first paragraph of your review. Try to conclude your paper by connecting your inquiry question back to the context of the general topic of study.
References
This is the last page of your review. It serves as a listing of all references that you mentioned in your paper. Please use APA style when completing this list.
Examples:
Literature Review Topic examples:
Example 1: For a topic related to diabetes and periodontal disease:
Introduce what is diabetes and periodontal disease.
How prevalent (common and chronic) are they? (How many people have these things?)
What are the risk factors? (those over 45, smokers etc.).
You would then find articles that demonstrate people who have diabetes have higher rates of periodontal disease, and also, that people with periodontal disease tend to be at higher risk for developing diabetes.
What are ways an oral health provider can provide prevention related to your topic? For example, explain to patients’ with diabetes that they are at a higher risk for developing periodontal disease and how to ensure proper home care.
Example 2: For a topic of Oral Cancer, things I want to know:
Risk Factors (smoking, alcohol, age, gender, oral sex if HPV)
Where does oral cancer occur most commonly? (tongue etc.)
What types of oral cancer are common? (Squamous cell carcinoma, HPV)
How many people get oral cancer? ( roughly 50,000 new cases per year, and how many deaths?)
How can you as a DH prevent this (education, biopsy new lesions after re-eval of 14 days)
Citations here could be from research papers on PubMed, as well as the CDC, and American Diabetes Association
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