Many higher education research repositories contain PhD and Masters theses. Search research repositories the same way you search literature databases.
Examples of research repositories include:
Information about conferences, their papers and proceedings are a good source of current research, best practices and new innovations in a research area.
Search the Article Databases, Library Search | Ketu, and the internet for conference information.
Full-text conference papers however, may be hard to obtain. If a paper is not available online, you may be able to contact the author and request a copy. Also, the Library may be able to borrow or purchase published proceedings--talk to the Dentistry Subject Librarian for assistance