Dental Resources (Books, Journal, Notes)

Library

Dental Resources

Open-access journals, current clinical guidelines, regulator documents and free reference material — everything here is legally and freely available.

Good dentistry runs on current evidence, and a surprising amount of it is free. Below are the sources worth bookmarking: open-access literature, the guidelines Australian practice is actually held to, and reference material you can reach without a subscription.

On textbooks. This page links only to material that is freely and legally available. It does not host or link to unauthorised copies of copyrighted textbooks. Where a text is genuinely useful and not open-access, the honest routes are your university or state library, an institutional subscription, or buying it — and we've noted those where relevant.

Literature databases

Start here for anything evidence-based. All free to search; most results include at least an abstract.

PubMed The primary biomedical literature database. Free to search, with abstracts for essentially everything and full text for a large and growing proportion. Free PubMed Central Full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences literature. Where PubMed gives you the abstract, PMC often gives you the whole paper at no cost. Free Directory of Open Access Journals An index of vetted open-access journals across all fields, including a substantial dental section. Useful for finding legitimate free journals rather than predatory ones. Free Google Scholar Broad coverage and good at surfacing freely available versions of papers that sit behind paywalls elsewhere. Less rigorous than PubMed, but often finds what PubMed won't. Free

Systematic reviews and evidence synthesis

Where to look before you form a view on a clinical question.

Cochrane Oral Health The dental arm of Cochrane, producing systematic reviews across caries, periodontal disease, orthodontics, oral cancer and more. Plain-language summaries are free to everyone. Free summaries Cochrane Library Full reviews. Australia has national provisions for access in some settings — check whether your library, university or workplace provides it before paying. Access varies

Open-access dental journals

Peer-reviewed and free to read in full.

BMC Oral Health Fully open-access journal covering all aspects of oral and dental health, from clinical trials to epidemiology. Free BDJ Open The open-access companion to the British Dental Journal, covering clinical and translational dental research. Free Clinical and Experimental Dental Research Open-access journal spanning clinical dentistry and laboratory research across all specialties. Free Australian Dental Journal The ADA's peer-reviewed journal and the most directly relevant to Australian practice. Not open-access — included free with ADA membership, or via a university library. Member or library

Clinical guidelines

What Australian practice is actually measured against.

Dental Board of Australia — Codes and Guidelines The registration standards, codes of conduct, scope of practice and CPD guidelines that govern registered practice in Australia. Free, authoritative, and worth reading rather than skimming. Free IADT Dental Trauma Guidelines International Association of Dental Traumatology guidelines on avulsion, luxation and fracture injuries, in both permanent and primary dentition. Freely available and the standard reference for trauma management. Free European Federation of Periodontology Source of the S3-level clinical practice guidelines on treating periodontitis, and of the 2017 classification materials. Several key documents are free to download. Free NHMRC Australian national health guidance, including public statements on water fluoridation and oral health that are frequently examined and frequently misquoted. Free Therapeutic Guidelines — Oral and Dental The Australian standard for dental prescribing, including antibiotic and analgesic guidance. Subscription-based, but often accessible free through a state library membership, university, or hospital network — check before you pay. Subscription ARPANSA Radiation protection guidance, including the code applying to dental radiography. Directly relevant if you take radiographs or supervise anyone who does. Free

Regulators and professional bodies

For registration, accreditation and workforce questions.

Australian Dental Council Assessment and examination pathways for overseas-trained practitioners, plus accreditation standards for Australian programmes. Free Ahpra Registration, renewal, the public register and notification processes across all regulated health professions. Free Australian Dental Association Professional body for Australian dentists. Substantial member resources, policy statements and infection control guidance, with some material publicly available. Some member-only AIHW — Oral Health Data Australian oral health statistics, service use and workforce data. The place to get real numbers rather than repeating figures from memory. Free World Health Organization — Oral Health Global oral health data, policy positions and reports, useful for public health dentistry topics. Free

Books — the legitimate routes

There is no free authorised copy of Carranza, Grossman, Cohen or Phillips. These are the honest ways to get access.

Open Library Borrow scanned copies of in-copyright books legally, one reader at a time, through a controlled digital lending model. Free account required. Free account Project Gutenberg Public domain texts, including older anatomy references such as the 1918 edition of Gray's Anatomy. Historical rather than current, but genuinely free and genuinely legal. Free National and state libraries Australian library membership is free and frequently includes remote access to clinical databases and e-books that would otherwise cost hundreds. The most underused resource on this page. Free membership

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Last reviewed: [August, 2026]. Links to external sites are provided for reference and do not imply endorsement. Access arrangements and URLs change without notice.