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THE PATIENT CONNECTION
According to a survey conducted at the end of last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, nearly one-third of those polled indicated they would turn to the Internet before contacting a health care professional the next time they are in need of health or medical information. Among just those who use the Internet regularly, that figure went up to 46 percent, according to the survey.

Unfortunately, the quality and accuracy of health information on the Internet is highly variable, even though 81 percent of the Internet users surveyed by Pew expected to find reliable health care information online.

In view of such expectations, to where can you refer patients who are interested in learning more about their oral health online for reliable information? The Public content area of ADA.org, accessible at "www.ada.org/public", provides a wide range of information, in a variety of formats, to answer patients’ questions and concerns.

The alphabetical Oral Health Topic listing is a good place to start. Here, patients can select a topic of interest from a compilation of more than 100 subject areas. Selecting any topic will open a listing of all the resources dealing with the subject that are available to the patient on ADA.org, including ADA statements, news releases in text and video formats,

"Dental Minute" and public service announcement videos and collections of frequently asked questions. Dental Minute, public service announcement and news release videos are available in formats optimized for downloading via either a broadband or a dial-up modem connection. To view each video, patients will need the Windows Media Player application, commonly installed on computers running the Windows operating system and also available for download free of charge by visiting "www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia".

To appeal to younger patients, a selection of interactive online video games was introduced at the end of last year. Four games, designed for children in preschool through third grade, present topics in oral health care in a fun, interactive format. In addition to the video games, a collection of five animations, running about 30 seconds each, address topics including tooth development, suggested brushing and flossing techniques, periodontal disease and endodontic therapy.

Patients who wish to play the games or view the animations will need to download the Macromedia Flash Player and Shockwave Player Web browser plug-ins, which are available free of charge at "www.macromedia.com/software".

For general information on dental treatments and oral health care, the "For the Dental Patient" feature that appears in JADA each month is available for download. If you have not provided copies of the dental patient page in your office, you can simply direct patients to ADA.org to download a selection of recently covered topics as PDF files. To view and print PDF files, patients can download the Adobe Acrobat Reader application free of charge from "www.adobe.com/products".

This is just a sampling of the resources on ADA.org to which you can direct patients who have grown accustomed to learning more about their health care online. To see the complete offerings, go to "www.ada.org/public".

Reported by Joe Hoyle, electronic media editor, "hoylej{at}ada.org".

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