How about the quality of information concerningperiodontal diseases our patients are finding online?

OBJECTIVE: Analyze the websites returned by Google and Bing on periodontal disease by the JAMA criteria and the HONCode, and to evaluate the quality of the websites’ content. MATERIALS AND METHODS: “Gum disease” was searched in Brazilian Google and Bing in May 2017. The first 200 websites were analyzed by the Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA) criteria and the Health On the Net Foundation (HONCode) certification. The websites’ content was analyzed according to an instrument previously described in the literature. RESULTS: The JAMA scores of websites returned by Google and Bing were similar (median, 2; IQR [1, 3]). The proportion of websites with a JAMA score ≥3 was significantly higher for Google than for Bing (41% versus 29.7%, P=0.03). Journalism websites showed the highest scores in both platforms, while Dental Practices websites scored the lowest. Comparing the first 10 results of Google and Bing with the rest of the websites, there was no significant difference in the JAMA score for both platforms. Google’s content analysis showed a mean score of 34.3±18.4, while in Bing it was 39.1±18.5 (P=0.83). CONCLUSION: The online information concerning periodontal diseases in Brazilian Portuguese present low trustworthiness and low quality of disease-specific content. This issue deserves attention not only from the researchers but also from government entities and specialized institutions in order to ensure access to safe, sound and readable oral health information to Brazilian’s citizens.