The reflective practitioner - another way of looking at primary dental care

Research outcomes are of no value if the methods from which they are derived have no legitimacy. The methods must justify our confidence.(1)This opinion article seeks to identify why problems arise when research derived from an academic or secondary care situation is applied to general dental practice. The article also offers an additional approach to clinical research through the creation of a new breed of practitioner-researchers, trained to help create guidelines of greater legitimacy to primary dental care. In essence, research intended for primary dental care must reflect the messy world of everyday practice as opposed to the relatively uncluttered high ground of academia.