Parekh J, Gill D S
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Senior House Officer, Department of Oral Surgery, UCLH Eastman Dental Hospital (UCLH NHS Foundation Trust), 256 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8LD.
Consultant Orthodontist, Great Ormond Street NHS Foundation Trust and UCLH Eastman Dental Hospital (UCLH NHS Foundation Trust).
Br Dent J. 2014 May;216(10):E21. doi: 10.1038/sj.bdj.2014.403.
To evaluate orthodontic practice websites for the reliability of information presented, accessibility, usability for patients and compliance to General Dental Council (GDC) regulations on ethical advertising.
World Wide Web.
The term 'orthodontic practice' was entered into three separate search engines. The 30 websites from the UK were selected and graded according to the LIDA tool (a validated method of evaluating healthcare websites) for accessibility, usability of the website and reliability of information on orthodontic treatment. The websites were then evaluated against the GDC's Principles for ethical advertising in nine different criteria.
On average, each website fulfilled six out of nine points of the GDC's criteria, with inclusion of a complaints policy being the most poorly fulfilled criteria. The mean LIDA score (a combination of usability, reliability and accessibility) was 102/144 (standard deviation 8.38). The websites scored most poorly on reliability (average 43% SD 11.7), with no single website reporting a clear, reliable method of content production. Average accessibility was 81% and usability 73%.
In general, websites did not comply with GDC guidelines on ethical advertising. Furthermore, practitioners should consider reporting their method of information production, particularly when making claims about efficiency and speed of treatment in order to improve reliability.
评估正畸诊疗机构网站所提供信息的可靠性、可访问性、对患者的可用性以及是否符合英国牙科总会（GDC）关于道德广告的规定。
万维网。
在三个不同的搜索引擎中输入“正畸诊疗机构”一词。从英国选取30个网站，并根据LIDA工具（一种经过验证的评估医疗保健网站的方法）对网站的可访问性、可用性以及正畸治疗信息的可靠性进行评分。然后根据GDC道德广告原则的九个不同标准对这些网站进行评估。
平均而言，每个网站符合GDC标准中九个要点中的六个，其中投诉政策是最不符合的标准。LIDA平均得分（可用性、可靠性和可访问性的综合得分）为102/144（标准差8.38）。网站在可靠性方面得分最低（平均43%，标准差11.7），没有一个网站报告清晰、可靠的内容制作方法。平均可访问性为81%，可用性为73%。
总体而言，网站不符合GDC关于道德广告的指导方针。此外，从业者应考虑公布其信息制作方法，尤其是在声称治疗效率和速度时，以提高可靠性。
