Background: Despite the achievements of The Cochrane Collaboration in accumulating the existing evidence, there are still many gaps in the evidence for the management of a number of common healthcare problems. Dry socket is a complication that can happen in up to 5% of all of tooth extractions, and there is no systematic review done evaluating the effectiveness of different healthcare interventions for the management of dry socket except for an ongoing Cochrane review which has not yet provided any recommendations on the best treatment option. Objectives: To evaluate how clinicians make decisions for the management of healthcare problems of their patients when there is no high quality evidence in the form of systematic reviews. Methods: A questionnaire was designed and distributed among dentists who were part of the academic staff of a dental school in Iran. The questionnaire includes questions on the interventions that clinicians suggest for the treatment and prevention of dry socket and asks them about the basis of their decision. Results: As of March 2008, 26 people have completed the questionnaire (11 males and 15 females, 65% of whom have over 10 years work and teaching experience). Eighteen people (69%) suggested a combination of interventions including local anesthesia, irrigation and debridment of socket plus intrasocket medications such as zinc oxide & eugenol or antibiotics cotton pellets. The results also indicated that 76% of the participants made their decision based on textbooks, 19% consulted a senior clinician and 3% conceived their idea from evidence based resources. Conclusions: Based on data received up to March 2008, most of the people referred to famous textbooks as a reliable source. We intend surveying a more diverse group of dentists and will compare these results with the conclusions reached in the published Cochrane review by October 2008.