Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality, readability, and popularity of patient-oriented online information about peri-implantitis.
Materials and methods: The term "peri-implantitis" was searched in Google® and in Yahoo!®. The first 100 websites of each search engine were considered for further analysis. Quality was measured by DISCERN tool, and JAMA benchmarks. Readability was analyzed by Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Grade (FKRG), Gunning Fog index (GFI), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) index. Popularity was assessed by Alexa Popularity Rank (APR).
Results: Only 28 websites remained after applying the exclusion criteria. The median overall DISCERN rating was 2.0 [2.0-3.0], which demonstrates the low quality of the information related to peri-implantitis. None of the websites achieved all the four JAMA benchmarks. Legibility indices showed ranges within the scores of difficult to read (FRES, 37.3 [26.9-53.9]; FKRGL, 12.8 [10.5-15.4]; GFI, 15.3 [12.5-18.0]; and SMOG, 11.1 [8.8-13.0]). Median APR was 2,228,599.0 [302,352.0-8,125,885.5].
Conclusions: Available English-written e-health information on peri-implantitis is poor in terms of quality and the analyzed websites are beyond the reading level recommended for comprehension. The popularity measurement showed great divergences between different Web pages.
Clinical relevance: Information about peri-implantitis on the Internet is difficult to read by patients, which they are not capable of understand.
Keywords: Dental implant; Health literacy; Internet; Peri-implantitis.