# How different attributes are weighted in professionals’ decision-making in Pediatric Dentistry—a protocol for guiding discrete choice experiment focused on shortening the evidence-based practice implementation for dental care

## TL;DR

This study aims to understand how dental professionals make decisions when implementing evidence-based practices, to help speed up the adoption of new dental care methods.

## Contribution

The study introduces a protocol using discrete choice experiments to assess how professionals value different attributes in decision-making for dental care.

## Key findings

- Dental professionals' preferences for attributes in decision-making will be identified through discrete choice experiments.
- The study will help design strategies to overcome barriers in implementing evidence-based dental care.
- Results will inform customized educational and implementation initiatives for dental professionals.

## Abstract

Important evidence has been constantly produced and needs to be converted into practice. Professional consumption of such evidence may be a barrier to its implementation. Then, effective implementation of evidence-based interventions in clinical practice leans on the understanding of how professionals value attributes when choosing between options for dental care, permitting to guide this implementation process by maximizing strengthens and minimizing barriers related to that.

This is part of a broader project investigating the potential of incorporating scientific evidence into clinical practice and public policy recommendations and guidelines, identifying strengths and barriers in such an implementation process. The present research protocol comprises a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) from the Brazilian oral health professionals’ perspective, aiming to assess how different factors are associated with professional decision-making in dental care, including the role of scientific evidence. Different choice sets will be developed, either focusing on understanding the role of scientific evidence in the professional decision-making process or on understanding specific attributes associated with different interventions recently tested in randomized clinical trials and available as newly produced scientific evidence to be used in clinical practice.

Translating research into practice usually requires time and effort. Shortening this process may be useful for faster incorporation into clinical practice and beneficial to the population. Understanding the context and professionals’ decision-making preferences is crucial to designing more effective implementation and/or educational initiatives. Ultimately, we expect to design an efficient implementation strategy that overcomes threats and potential opportunities identified during the DCEs, creating a customized structure for dental professionals.

https://osf.io/bhncv.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12903-024-04090-3.