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.