THE DENTAL CLINIC WEBSITE AND ITS ROLE IN THE DOCTOR–PATIENT COMMUNICATION PROCESS
Keywords:
Dental Practice, Marketing, Dental Practice Website, DigitalizationAbstract
Patients seek rapid and reliable answers to medical queries arising throughout the progression of their conditions, frequently consulting the websites of various dental practices. Consequently, this study aimed to investigate the utilization of dental practice websites within the communication framework between Bulgarian dental practitioners and their patients.
This study was conducted among 195 dental practitioners, including both general dentists and specialists, as well as clinicians working in private practices and those employed under a labor contract. Respondents are divided into groups according to their work experience, specialty, and their work in different clinical environments.
The study revealed that slightly more than half of all surveyed dental practitioners (52.3%) maintain an official website for their dental practice. Content creation is primarily managed directly by the dental practitioner (68.6%), followed by collaboration with IT professionals (36.3%), while artificial intelligence (AI) tools are utilized least frequently (3.9%) for website content generation.
Regarding content orientation and perception, respondents predominantly endorsed the statement "the information on the site is reliable and scientifically based" (82.4%), followed by "the information on the site has an advertising purpose" (18.6%), whereas "the information on the site is commercial" received the lowest response rate (3.9%).
A statistically relevant association was observed between years of professional experience and the approach to website content management. Younger dental practitioners demonstrated a stronger tendency to leverage online resources and artificial intelligence tools, while also accepting a higher degree of marketing-oriented messaging in published web content.
The evolution of dental practices must align with the communication preferences of younger generations, offering services through modalities acceptable to diverse patient demographics (both traditional and virtual). Maintaining professional practice websites with verified, scientifically sound information enhances clinic reputation and fosters patient loyalty. Furthermore, there is a clear imperative for comprehensive guidelines to develop reliable web-based resources, enabling dentists to utilize digital platforms and social media effectively and responsibly.
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