Practice, complexity and evidence-based practice

In this opinion piece, I explore practice and complexity, the latter a term often used in relation to the field of special care dentistry. As research is usually concerned with generating new knowledge of some sort, I explore how knowledge is viewed from a practice perspective, as shared, transitory and situated in interactions, rather than being a thing possessed. This leads into a discussion of how the word complexity has been viewed in complexity science, contrasting it with the linear models generated in the evidence-based practice realm from research and research-informed guidelines. Finally, I address the inherent paradox of attempting to align linear models generated from research with the complexity of practice. I suggest that to evaluate and improve practices we should use narrative and exploratory methods that allow its complexity to be made sense of, made transparent and made available for interpretation.