Abstract
Background
The
National Law that regulates the dental and other health care
professions in Australia sets out regulations that dictate how dental
practices are to advertise. This study examines the extent to which the
profession complies with these regulations and the potential impact that
advertising may have upon professionalism.
Methods
A
Facebook search of 38 local government areas in Sydney, New South
Wales, was carried out to identify dental practices that had pages on
this social media site. A framework for assessment of compliance was
developed using the regulatory guidelines and was used to conduct a
netnographic review.
Results
Two
hundred and sixty-six practice pages were identified from across the 38
regions. Of these pages, 71.05% were in breach of the National Law in
their use of testimonials, 5.26% displayed misleading or false
information, 4.14% displayed offers that had no clear terms and
conditions or had inexact pricing, 19.55% had pictures or text that was
likely to create unrealistic expectations of treatment benefit and
16.92% encouraged the indiscriminate and unnecessary utilization of
health services.
Conclusions
This study found that compliance with the National Law by the Facebook pages surveyed was poor.
Comments