Reliability and Readability of Patient-Oriented Internet-Based Information Regarding Gingival Recession

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the quality and readability of web-based information regarding the gingival recession. An internet search was done using two engines (Google and Bing) with the terms “gingival recession,” “gum recession,” and “receding gums.” Each search engine’s top 100 results for each query were filtered out. The websites’ reliability and level of quality were evaluated using the JAMA and DISCERN scores, respectively. Readability was analyzed by the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Gunning Fog index (GFI), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) index, the Coleman-Liau score (CL), the Linsear Write (LW) readability formula and the Automated Readability Index (ARI), via an online readability tool. Of the 151 websites, 81.5% were private dental clinics, 9.3% were advertising sites, 4.6% were national health services, and 4.6% were nonprofit organizations. 11.3% of the websites achieved all four JAMA benchmarks, and the JAMA average of all websites was 2.06. The mean FRES was 54.48, and the mean GFI was 12.82. The mean DISCERN scores for all websites were 43.64 and the DISCERN scores of the websites prepared by periodontologists were statistically significantly higher than the others. The online health information regarding gingival recession has fair reliability and difficult readability. It is essential to produce website information free from commercial bias and simple for patients to understand fully.

Keywords:

• Gingival recession
• health education
• internet
• oral health

Acknowledgment

No grant was given to this research by any funding organization in the public, private, or nonprofit sectors.

Author contributions

All authors worked together to create the study. OSA and SCS collected the data and did the analysis, OSA, SCS, and GU wrote the report. The final manuscript was reviewed and approved by all writers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Table

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Özlem Saraç Atagün

Özlem Saraç Atagün, DDS, PhD ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor at Department of Periodontology, Gülhane Faculty of Dentistry, University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Turkey.

Seval Ceylan Şen

Seval Ceylan Şen, DDS, MS ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor at Department of Periodontology, Gülhane Faculty of Dentistry, University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Turkey.

Gülbahar Ustaoğlu

Gülbahar Ustaoğlu, DDS, MS ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor at Department of Periodontology, Gülhane Faculty of Dentistry, University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Turkey.