Is Dentistry in an Uphill Battle Against Dr. Google?

During the February 2022 Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting Dr. Gregory Psaltis gave an interesting talk titled “Dealing with Dr. Google.” Dr. Psaltis presented how nowadays patients are turning to internet searches to seek information on scientific topics and in particular their dental treatments. Based on what the patients find online this can cause them and their parents to challenge any recommendations. In the talk Psaltis said how parents of young dental patients these days are arriving at dental practices and don’t agree with the recommendations the dentist suggests. He presented four such scenarios including that parent’s do not want x-rays for their child, that parent’s do not want flouride for their child, that parent’s only want tooth-colored crowns—not silver (stainless steel) for their child, and that parent’s only want only fillings for large lesions and never any crowns for … Read more

Why People Who Google and Search Online For Health Information Just Don’t Get It

I find the current state of affairs on the internet to be extremely disappointing and discouraging. Recent research by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) “…found that 80% of Internet users look online for health information, making it the third most popular online pursuit among all those tracked by the Pew Internet Project, following email and using a search engine.” The instance a person goes on the internet they are bombarded by conflict of interest after conflict of interest. Many young people today turn to Google to conduct searches to find information online (of course other search engines such as Bing exist). The way search works of course is to enter some keyword or keywords you have in your mind about what you want to search for.  Well this is when … Read more