Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

The new Luxatemp Star offers outstanding results for break resistance and flexural strength! The newest genera- tion of DMG’s top material Luxatemp scores even better: excellent stability, maximum fit and reliable long-term color stability. No wonder experts recommend it. Find out more at www.dmg-dental.com For a look that’s hard to beat. The new Luxatemp Star. Stunningly beautiful temporaries with proven durability: NEW! AZM_LxStar_DE_2012.indd 1 27.03.12 17:15 H ave you got a couple of minutes? Well ob- viously you have as you’ve decided to read this. Anyway, have a go at this and then continue reading. On your computer use a search engine to find a read- ability index. Alternatively, go straight to www.standards- schmandards.com/exhibits/ rix/index.php Now copy and paste some text (a few hundred words at least) from your website into the box and click the ‘Calcu- late score’ button. You will get a score for how readable the piece of text is. Note that the American grade system is like the British school year system, but our year 1 is their Kin- dergarten, our year 2 is their grade 1 and so on. There are many different readability indices with in- teresting names such as the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, the Coleman-Liau Index, the Gunning Fog Index and the Fry Readability Formula (developed by Edward Fry not Stephen!). They each calculate readability in different ways using criteria such as the aver- age number of sentences and/ or syllables and/or characters per so many words. Of particular interest to us is the SMOG (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) grade as it is widely used for checking health messages – to estimate the years of education needed to understand a piece of writing. A study into the readability of on- line Parkinson’s disease infor- mation by PR Fitzsimmons et al published in the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (issue 40 pages 292- 6) concluded: ‘Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook should be the preferred measure of webpage readability.’ The only UK study into pa- tient information that I’ve been able to find was reported as a research abstract in the Brit- ish Dental Journal 201 (22 July 2006). It was undertaken to assess the quality of a range of patient information leaflets produced by the British Dental Association. Readability was assessed using Flesch-Kincaid and SMOG. Quality was as- sessed using DISCERN – a quality criteria instrument for consumer health information developed at the University of Oxford and funded by the NHS Executive Research and Devel- opment Programme. One of the findings was that ‘All leaflets scored quite well for readability’. However, ‘…most leaflets scored poorly in setting out clear aims in the opening paragraph, in identifying sourc- es and dates of information pro- vided, and other sources of ad- vice and support available.’ Okay, enough of the back- ground. Let’s get down to prac- ticalities and look at some of the ways you can ensure that the information you give pa- tients is of high quality and suitability. Start with some- thing easy – test the readability of your website. I suggest us- ing the one run by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Why improving your practice is a mystery – part 12 Jacqui Goss highlights the importance of readability 16 Practice Management November 12 - 18, 2012United Kingdom Edition