<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<sec>
<h3>Objective</h3>
<p>The aim of the present study was to evaluate the quality of information uploaded onto the Internet regarding accelerated orthodontics.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Materials and methods</h3>
<p>The selected search terms ‘accelerated orthodontics’, ‘rapid orthodontics’, ‘speed orthodontics’, ‘rapid braces’, and ‘speed braces’ were searched by three commonly used search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing), and the URLs of the top 50 websites were recorded. The websites were evaluated using DISCERN, HONcode, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark instruments. The readability of the websites was evaluated by the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES) and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL).</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Results</h3>
<p>The total mean DISCERN score (section 1 + section 2) for all websites was 29.50/75 (range: 15–68). The average FRES of all websites was 52.99 ± 31.91. Also, the average FKGL score of all websites was 10.73 ± 2.03. Professional health organisation websites had significantly higher DISCERN scores than other websites (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001). Only three websites had the HONcode seal. Professional organisation and private dental practice websites showed better compliance with JAMA benchmarks. There was no statistically significant difference related to FRES and FKGL scores between groups (<italic>p</italic> > 0.05).</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<h3>Conclusions</h3>
<p>Information regarding accelerated orthodontics found on the Internet is insufficient. It is recommended that orthodontic societies and orthodontists increase the quality of the websites which describe accelerated orthodontics.</p>
</sec>
</abstract>

Objective
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the quality of information uploaded onto the Internet regarding accelerated orthodontics.


Materials and methods
The selected search terms ‘accelerated orthodontics’, ‘rapid orthodontics’, ‘speed orthodontics’, ‘rapid braces’, and ‘speed braces’ were searched by three commonly used search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing), and the URLs of the top 50 websites were recorded. The websites were evaluated using DISCERN, HONcode, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark instruments. The readability of the websites was evaluated by the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES) and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL).


Results
The total mean DISCERN score (section 1 + section 2) for all websites was 29.50/75 (range: 15–68). The average FRES of all websites was 52.99 ± 31.91. Also, the average FKGL score of all websites was 10.73 ± 2.03. Professional health organisation websites had significantly higher DISCERN scores than other websites (p < 0.001). Only three websites had the HONcode seal. Professional organisation and private dental practice websites showed better compliance with JAMA benchmarks. There was no statistically significant difference related to FRES and FKGL scores between groups (p > 0.05).


Conclusions
Information regarding accelerated orthodontics found on the Internet is insufficient. It is recommended that orthodontic societies and orthodontists increase the quality of the websites which describe accelerated orthodontics.

A quality assessment of Internet information regarding accelerated orthodontics

Australasian Orthodontic Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

left-running-head

running-head

Objective
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the quality of information uploaded onto the Internet regarding accelerated orthodontics.


Materials and methods
The selected search terms ‘accelerated orthodontics’, ‘rapid orthodontics’, ‘speed orthodontics’, ‘rapid braces’, and ‘speed braces’ were searched by three commonly used search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing), and the URLs of the top 50 websites were recorded. The websites were evaluated using DISCERN, HONcode, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark instruments. The readability of the websites was evaluated by the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES) and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL).


Results
The total mean DISCERN score (section 1 + section 2) for all websites was 29.50/75 (range: 15–68). The average FRES of all websites was 52.99 ± 31.91. Also, the average FKGL score of all websites was 10.73 ± 2.03. Professional health organisation websites had significantly higher DISCERN scores than other websites (p  0.05).


Conclusions
Information regarding accelerated orthodontics found on the Internet is insufficient. It is recommended that orthodontic societies and orthodontists increase the quality of the websites which describe accelerated orthodontics.

Objective
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the quality of information uploaded onto the Internet regarding accelerated orthodontics.


Materials...

JAMA benchmarks	Dental professionals (n = 84)	Professional health organisations (n = 8)	Companies (n = 12)	Dental clinics (n = 71)	P value*
Authorship
No	69	2	11	64	<0.001
Yes	15	6	1	7	<0.001
Attribution
No	82	5	12	96	0.007
Yes	2	3	0	2	0.007
Disclosure
No	0	6	0	1	<0.001
Yes	84	2	12	70	<0.001
Currency
No	64	1	11	53	0.001
Yes	20	7	1	18	0.001

Parameters	Dental professionals (n = 84) Mean (SD)	Professional health organisations (n = 8) Mean (SD)	Companies (n = 12) Mean (SD)	Dental clinics (n = 71) Mean (SD)	P value*
DISCERN scores
Section 1	14.54 (4.25)	27.50 (8.07)	13.50 (3.80)	14.42 (3.72)	<0.001
Section 2	13.94 (3.88)	24.25 (7.57)	13.00 (4.24)	14.28 (3.80)	0.001
Total mean	28.48 (7.80)	51.75 (14.71)	26.50 (7.97)	28.70 (7.18)	0.001
Section 3 (Q16)	1.90 (0.83)	3.38 (1.41)	1.92 (0.90)	1.90 (0.80)	0.022
Flesch–Kincaid grade level	10.66 (1.88)	10.95 (3.18)	9.50 (2.80)	10.99 (1.87)	0.181
Flesch reading ease score	50.94 (10.92)	48.33 (17.83)	56.48 (12.63)	55.36 (48.14)	0.254

A quality assessment of Internet information regarding accelerated orthodontics

Article Category: research-article

Data publikacji: 01 paź 2021

Zakres stron: 265 - 272

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/aoj-2021.029

© 2021 Kevser Kurt Demirsoy et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Comparison of JAMA benchmark scores among the groups.

Comparison of DISCERN, FRE, FKGL scores among the groups.