{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T04:39:05Z","timestamp":1787027945214,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,4]],"date-time":"2024-03-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1709510400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Schleswig-Holstein","award":["DE814167313"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DE814167313"]}]},{"name":"Land Schleswig-Holstein","award":["DE814167313"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DE814167313"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Dentistry Journal"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Fluoridation (Fl) is effective in preventing caries; however, it is unclear to what extent its use is counteracted by misinformation on the internet. This study aimed to evaluate the information provided on professional websites of German dental practices regarding fluoridation. A systematic search was performed by two independent examiners, utilizing three search engines, from 10 September 2021 to 11 December 2021. Modified, validated questionnaires (LIDA, DISCERN) were used to evaluate technical and functional aspects, generic quality, and risk of bias. Demographic information and statements about Fl were also collected. The intra- and inter-rater reliability assessments were excellent. Of the 81 websites analyzed, 64 (79%) mentioned Fl, and 31 (38%) indicated it as a primary focus. Most websites met at least 50% of the LIDA (90%) and DISCERN criteria (99%), indicating that the general quality was good. Thirty (37%) of the websites explained the impact of Fl, and forty-five (56%) indicated an opinion (for\/against) on Fl. The practice location and the clinical focus were not associated with the overall quality of websites. Only a minority of websites explained the effects of Fl. Taken together, this study highlights that there is a distinct lack of good-quality information on FL.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/dj12030065","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,5]],"date-time":"2024-03-05T03:03:20Z","timestamp":1709607800000},"page":"65","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Dental Practice Websites in Germany\u2014How Do They Inform about Fluoridation?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Antje","family":"Geiken","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinic of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University of Kiel, 24105 Kiel, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mirja","family":"Kock","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinic of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University of Kiel, 24105 Kiel, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lisa","family":"Banz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinic of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University of Kiel, 24105 Kiel, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Falk","family":"Schwendicke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinic for Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University Hospital of Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8316-0565","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christian","family":"Graetz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinic of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University of Kiel, 24105 Kiel, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"69","article-title":"Fluoride and Oral Health","volume":"33","author":"Baez","year":"2016","journal-title":"Community Dent. Health"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"507","DOI":"10.1007\/s40368-019-00464-2","article-title":"Guidelines on the use of fluoride for caries prevention in children: An updated EAPD policy document","volume":"20","author":"Toumba","year":"2019","journal-title":"Eur. Arch. Paediatr. Dent. Off. J. Eur. Acad. Paediatr. Dent."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S5","DOI":"10.1111\/jcpe.12682","article-title":"Role of microbial biofilms in the maintenance of oral health and in the development of dental caries and periodontal diseases. Consensus report of group 1 of the Joint EFP\/ORCA workshop on the boundaries between caries and periodontal disease","volume":"44","author":"Sanz","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Clin. Periodontol."},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"CD007868","article-title":"Fluoride toothpastes of different concentrations for preventing dental caries","volume":"3","author":"Walsh","year":"2019","journal-title":"Cochrane Database Syst. Rev."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"837","DOI":"10.1177\/0022034519843495","article-title":"Fluoride Revolution and Dental Caries: Evolution of Policies for Global Use","volume":"98","author":"Whelton","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Dent. Res."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"169","DOI":"10.2515\/therapie\/2013074","article-title":"How people use the internet to find information on medicines?","volume":"69","author":"Gouverneur","year":"2014","journal-title":"Therapie"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e326","DOI":"10.3346\/jkms.2023.38.e326","article-title":"The Impact of Social Media on Vaccination: A Narrative Review","volume":"38","author":"Rodrigues","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Korean Med. Sci."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"30","DOI":"10.1007\/s13278-023-01028-5","article-title":"Fake news, disinformation and misinformation in social media: A review","volume":"13","author":"Aimeur","year":"2023","journal-title":"Soc. Netw. Anal. Min."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2586","DOI":"10.1080\/21645515.2020.1780846","article-title":"Social media and vaccine hesitancy: New updates for the era of COVID-19 and globalized infectious diseases","volume":"16","author":"Puri","year":"2020","journal-title":"Hum. Vaccines Immunother."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e004206","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjgh-2020-004206","article-title":"Social media and vaccine hesitancy","volume":"5","author":"Wilson","year":"2020","journal-title":"BMJ Glob. Health"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3124","DOI":"10.1080\/10410236.2022.2137771","article-title":"Risk Communication in Public Health: Lessons from a Historic Fluoridation Debate in Saskatchewan","volume":"38","author":"Vandenberg","year":"2023","journal-title":"Health Commun."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1186\/1743-8462-4-25","article-title":"When public action undermines public health: A critical examination of antifluoridationist literature","volume":"4","author":"Armfield","year":"2007","journal-title":"Aust. N. Z. Health Policy"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"997","DOI":"10.1111\/cdoe.12800","article-title":"Fluoride hesitancy: A mixed methods study on decision-making about forms of fluoride","volume":"51","author":"Ko","year":"2023","journal-title":"Community Dent. Oral Epidemiol."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e44586","DOI":"10.2196\/44586","article-title":"Analysis of Fluoride-Free Content on Twitter: Topic Modeling Study","volume":"25","author":"Lotto","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"24","DOI":"10.1002\/hast.975","article-title":"Social Media, E-Health, and Medical Ethics","volume":"49","author":"Terrasse","year":"2019","journal-title":"Hastings Cent. Rep."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e37519","DOI":"10.2196\/37519","article-title":"Characterization of False or Misleading Fluoride Content on Instagram: Infodemiology Study","volume":"24","author":"Lotto","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e17250","DOI":"10.2196\/17250","article-title":"Quality of Information Regarding Repair Restorations on Dentist Websites: Systematic Search and Analysis","volume":"22","author":"Kanzow","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schwendicke, F., Stange, J., Stange, C., and Graetz, C. (2017). German dentists\u2019 websites on periodontitis have low quality of information. BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak., 17.","DOI":"10.1186\/s12911-017-0511-8"},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Minervation (2022, December 02). The LIDA Instrument: Minervation Validation Instrument for Health Care Web Sites, Version 1.2. Available online: http:\/\/www.minervation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Minervation-LIDA-instrument-v1-2.pdf."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"440","DOI":"10.1093\/her\/cyg046","article-title":"Learning to DISCERN online: Applying an appraisal tool to health websites in a workshop setting","volume":"19","author":"Charnock","year":"2004","journal-title":"Health Educ. Res."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.1136\/jech.53.2.105","article-title":"DISCERN: An instrument for judging the quality of written consumer health information on treatment choices","volume":"53","author":"Charnock","year":"1999","journal-title":"J. Epidemiol. Community Health"},{"key":"ref_22","first-page":"363","article-title":"Evaluation of English Websites on Dental Caries by Using Consumer Evaluation Tools","volume":"14","author":"Blizniuk","year":"2016","journal-title":"Oral Health Prev. Dent."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"203","DOI":"10.5152\/TurkJOrthod.2020.20129","article-title":"Content and Quality Analysis of Websites as a Patient Resource for Temporomandibular Disorders","volume":"33","author":"Akan","year":"2020","journal-title":"Turk. J. Orthod."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"447","DOI":"10.1093\/ejo\/cju078","article-title":"The design and content of orthodontic practise websites in the UK is suboptimal and does not correlate with search ranking","volume":"37","author":"Patel","year":"2015","journal-title":"Eur. J. Orthod."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"214","DOI":"10.1080\/15376516.2023.2268722","article-title":"The fluorosis conundrum: Bridging the gap between science and public health","volume":"34","author":"Kumar","year":"2023","journal-title":"Toxicol. Mech. Methods"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112552","DOI":"10.1016\/j.socscimed.2019.112552","article-title":"Systematic Literature Review on the Spread of Health-related Misinformation on Social Media","volume":"240","author":"Wang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Soc. Sci. Med."},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"457","article-title":"Topical Fluoride Applications Related Posts Analysis on Twitter Using Natural Language Processing","volume":"19","author":"Eliacik","year":"2021","journal-title":"Oral Health Prev. Dent."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.15171\/hpp.2019.11","article-title":"An assessment of fluoride related posts on Instagram","volume":"9","author":"Basch","year":"2019","journal-title":"Health Promot. Perspect."},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"47","article-title":"Fluoride-related YouTube videos: A cross-sectional study of video contents by upload sources","volume":"92","author":"Basch","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Dent. Hyg. JDH Am. Dent. Hyg. Assoc."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e226414","DOI":"10.1001\/jamanetworkopen.2022.6414","article-title":"Mothers\u2019 Sources of Child Fluoride Information and Misinformation from Social Connections","volume":"5","author":"Burgette","year":"2022","journal-title":"JAMA Netw. Open"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"535","DOI":"10.1159\/000527419","article-title":"Association between Level of Parental Oral Health Literacy and the Rational Use of Fluoride for Children from 0 to 4 Years of Age after Instruction: An Intervention Trial","volume":"56","author":"Lisboa","year":"2022","journal-title":"Caries Res."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e415","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.7681","article-title":"Evaluating the Dental Caries-Related Information on Brazilian Websites: Qualitative Study","volume":"19","author":"Aguirre","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Med. Internet Res."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Geiken, A., Holtmann, L., Splieth, C.H., Conrad, J., Doerfer, C.E., and Graetz, C. (2022). Are the Dental Guidelines for Early Dental Visits and Fluoridation Measures Supported by Pediatricians, and What Are Their Caries Prevention Efforts?. J. Clin. Med., 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm11051159"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Geiken, A., Holtmann, L., Doerfer, C.E., Schwarz, C., and Graetz, C. (2022). Attitude of Midwives towards Fluoride Recommendations and Oral Prevention in Infants and Young Children. Children, 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/children9081135"}],"container-title":["Dentistry Journal"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6767\/12\/3\/65\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T14:09:10Z","timestamp":1760105350000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6767\/12\/3\/65"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,4]]},"references-count":34,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3]]}},"alternative-id":["dj12030065"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/dj12030065","relation":{},"ISSN":["2304-6767"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2304-6767","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,4]]}}}