ADA Living Evidence-Informed Guidelines Program
The ADA and Penn Dental Medicine are connecting new research with everyday care through continuously updated oral health guidelines and practical digital tools.
About the Program
The ADA Living Evidence-Informed Guidelines Program is a partnership between the American Dental Association and Penn Dental Medicine that develops oral health recommendations and keeps them current as new evidence emerges.
The program connects ongoing research monitoring, multidisciplinary guideline development, and practical implementation tools in one digital system. Its goal is to shorten the time between new findings and their use in clinical practice.
Who It Serves
The program serves oral health professionals, other healthcare professionals, patients, and public health and policy decision-makers across the United States.
Sector: Clinical practice and public health guidelines; evidence synthesis
Geography: United States, national
Status: Active, launch stage at the time of submission
The Gap It Addresses
Gaps in oral health clinical guidance, highlighted in the NIDCR’s Oral Health in America report, can leave healthcare professionals without clear, current recommendations.
Traditional guideline updates often occur every three to five years. New research may emerge between updates, creating a delay between available evidence and clinical practice. Static, printed guidance can also be difficult to access and apply at the point of care.
How the Approach Works
The program combines continuous evidence review with tools designed for everyday clinical use:
- Ongoing evidence monitoring: Living systematic reviews, supported by AI-enabled literature monitoring, identify new research that may affect recommendations.
- Multidisciplinary review: On-call panels use GRADE evidence-to-decision frameworks to assess whether the direction, wording, or strength of a recommendation should change.
- National priority setting: An advisory group representing U.S. organizations identifies topics and priorities.
- Practical digital resources: Recommendations are shared through JADA Evidence and ADA.org as mobile-friendly summaries, infographics, decision aids, and clinical pathways designed for electronic health records.
This approach connects evidence synthesis, guideline development, and implementation so recommendations can remain current and accessible during care.
Evidence and Evaluation
At the time of submission, the newly launched program had no outcome data available.
It builds on the ADA’s existing guideline development work. The submission cites an external peer-reviewed evaluation by London et al. (2023), which found a high level of quality in the methodology, reporting, and transparency of existing ADA guidelines.
Planned evaluation includes feedback from interested and affected groups on adherence to specific guidelines and their impact.
Current Status
The ADA-funded program is active and in its launch stage. Its framework and a four-part methods series were published in JADA in March 2026.
At the time of submission, the first living guideline, focused on early detection of oral cancer, was complete.
