Early treatment philosophies in the field of orthodontics were frequently being based upon "personal opinion" through individual "testimonies" relative to treatment outcomes. Today, the specialty of orthodontics is moving to a higher standard of research investigative efforts and a hierarchy of clinical evidence has been established. Specifically, the hierarchy of evidence in ascending order from the "lowest" to the "highest" standard of evidence is as follows:
1. Expert Opinion
2. Case Report
3. Case Series
4. Case-Control Study
5. Cohert Study
6. Randomized Clinical Trial
7. Systematic Review with a Meta-Analysis
The "Gold Standard" for the clinical research is the Randomized Clinical Trial, and the current trend in research is to make clinical treatment decisions based upon the evidence provided from a randomized clinical trial.
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