Evaluation of Information, Content, Quality and Readability of Information on the Internet About Dental Implants: Dental implants and the internet

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality, reliability and readability of the information and content about dental implants on the Internet.

Material and Methods: The most searched terms on the internet were determined as "dental implant" and "tooth implant" using the Google Trends application. A total of 220 websites were scanned according to search terms using Google and Yahoo search engines, and 45 websites matching the criteria were included in the study. These websites were evaluated according to the DISCERN questionnaire, JAMA criteria, and the FRES and FKGL readability formula. ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis, Mann-Whitney U and Fischer's exact tests were used for comparisons between data. P<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

Results: It was determined that 47%(n=21) by private dental clinics, 33%(n=15) by health sites, and 20%(n=9) by dentists of the 45 websites were shared. Health websites had significantly higher DISCERN scores than other websites(P≤0.05). When evaluated according to JAMA criteria, it was determined that the freshness criteria of the websites were the least (42%, n=19) and the patent rights criteria were the most(82%, n=37). Only seven websites had the HONcode seal detected. The average FRES and FKGL were 55.94 and 10.09, respectively, There was no statistically significant difference related to FRES and FKGL scores between groups (P>0.05).

Conclusions: The quality and readability of web-based information about dental implants were poor and insufficient. There is a need for websites that offer high-quality data with better readability for dental implant patients.