Are the Websites of the Dentistry Faculties in Turkey Adequate for Informing Pediatric Patients?

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the quality and readability of information provided by the websites of the Department of Pedodontics in the Dentistry Faculties of State Universities (SU) and Foundation Based Universities (FBU) in Turkey for pediatric patients. Method: All dentistry faculties in Turkey were identified through the Council of Higher Education database and classified as public and FBU. The websites of the faculties were accessed via the Google search engine, and the information pages of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry prepared for the patients were evaluated according to the Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information (DISCERN), Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), and Atesman Readability Formula. Results: No significant differences were observed among universities in terms of DISCERN scores (p>0.05), except in Section 1 (p=0.041). In Section 1, SU demonstrated higher DISCERN scores than FBU. None of the Faculties of Dentistry had an 'excellent' score. However, no significant differences were identified between universities in relation to Atesman scores (p>0.05), and no significant differences were found between universities on the JAMA benchmark scale (p>0.05). Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, it was determined that the quality and readability of information on websites prepared by the Faculty of Dentistry in Turkey for parents of pediatric patients are low. It is recommended that information on university websites, which are official institutions that closely follow scientific developments and are preferred by parents of patients for information purposes, should be checked with appropriate evaluation tools in terms of quality and readability.