Biostatistics: essential concepts for the clinician

INTRODUCTION: The efficiency of clinical procedures is based on practical and theoretical knowledge. Countless daily information is available to the orthodontist, but it is up to this professional to know how to select what really has an impact on clinical practice. Evidence-based orthodontics ends up requiring the clinician to know the basics of biostatistics to understand the results of scientific publications. Such concepts are also important for researchers, for correct data planning and analysis. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to present, in a clear way, some essential concepts of biostatistics that assist the clinical orthodontist in understanding scientific research, for an evidence-based clinical practice. In addition, an updated version of the tutorial to assist in choosing the appropriate statistical test will be presented. This PowerPoint(®) tool can be used to assist the user in finding answers to common questions about biostatistics, such as the most appropriate statistical test for comparing groups, choosing graphs, performing correlations and regressions, analyzing casual, random or systematic errors. CONCLUSION: Researchers and clinicians must acquire or recall essential concepts to understand and apply an appropriate statistical analysis. It is important that journal readers and reviewers can identify when statistical analyzes are being inappropriately used.