Objective To hand search all formally published articles on randomized controlled clinical trials (RCT) and controlled clinical trials (CCT) for inputting into the database of Chinese Cochrane Center (CCC) and the Central Database of Cochrane Collaboration. Method All Chinese dental journals of the mainland of China that started publication before the end of 1996 were hand searched page by page. Criteria of RCT and CCT were based on the guideline of Cochrane Oral Health Group. All included articles were copied and the titles of the articles and names of the journals were translated into English and input to Procite for submission. A senior professional monitored the process and checked the translation item by item. Results Fifteen dental journals were included. One started from 1953, six from 80s, and the rest from 90s. Ten of them were listed by Ministry of Science and Technology as part of the government database for scientific articles. From 1953 to 1990, 42 RCTs and 97 CCTs were found in 291 journal issues, from 1991-1995, 157 RCTs and 154 CCTs in 241 issues, from 1996-2000 358 RCTs and 264 CCTs in 316 issues. In the three periods, the average RCTs per journal issue were 0.14, 0.65, 1.13 respectively, the averages of CCTs per issue were 0.33, 0.64, 0.84 respectively. The ratios of RCT to CCT are 0.43, 1.02, 1.36 respectively which showed greatly increasing along with time. There are 113 articles accounting 10.54% of the total specially for testing the effect of various Chinese traditional medicines and therapies. The common problems for the searched RCTs and CCTs is small sample size, insufficient descriptions on randomization and concealment, compliance and drop outs. Some titles were improperly written such as using trade name of drugs etc. In translation into English, some words indicating category or main components of the drugs were added. Conclusions In comparison of one fourth of the world population and more than 30 thousands dental professionals of China, 557 RCTs and 515 CCTs in dental literature are quite small number but the increasing speed is encouraging. More effort should be offered to spread knowledge of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to the dental care workers of China to produce more evidences. RCTs and/or CCTs should be good tools to determining real effects of traditional Chinese medicines in dental fields to make them applicable to all.