Authors: Zainab Hayyat Raja , Mehwish Shaheed

Abstract

Background and Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic to-date has no treatment or vaccine and protection from the viral illness is only possible by acting upon valid and reliable information. The dentists are considered to be the most vulnerable profession due to proximity with the patient, and this also puts dental patients at risk. Internet is one of the primary sources of information, therefore this study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of the online available information using validated instruments. Methods: The following terms were searched on google.com “Coronavirus and dentistry”, “COVID-19 and dentistry” and “SARS COV 2 and dentistry”. The first fifty results for each search term were evaluated. Eighteen of the websites did not meet inclusion criteria so 132 websites were critically analyzed by Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HON code) and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark. Also, the websites were categorized according to content type. Results: A total of 6 (4.54%) websites had the HON code seal, and the JAMA benchmark showed that 14 (10.6%) did not fulfill any of the requirements. Another 69 (52.3%) links had fulfilled all the requirements but 65 (94.2%) of these websites were either links to research journals or guidelines published by dental associations, universities or government organizations, and usually not accessed by the general public. Conclusion: The information available to the dentists is satisfactorily accurate and reliable, but the nonhealth personnel need to be aware of the quality of information they read. The dentists should provide information to the patients about accessing reliable online sources for information and the expected changes in dental practice. The government should regulate health information on the internet to curb apprehension associated with dental treatment and viral pandemic.

Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Severe acute respiratory syndrome, Dentistry, Pandemic.