PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to assess the websites retrievable on an Internet search engine, with childhood dental caries information, available for the Portuguese speaking population, and also evaluate the quality of its information. METHODS: The search engine selected was Google®, with key words "Cárie" AND "Criança". The first 100 search results were assessed. Quality evaluation of the websites was performed by using the Health of the Net Foundation (HON) website. RESULTS: Scientific papers, in .pdf format were the most retrievable URL (n=25), followed by health portals (n=14). Brazilian domains (.BR e .GOV.BR) were the most prevalent (n=73). Portuguese domain (.PT) was present in only 4 websites URL. Concerning the quality evaluation, only 5.3% of the websites retrieved had the HON Accreditation. CONCLUSION: Although caries is the most common childhood disease, there seems to be a lack of quality on this theme information in Portuguese language, available for these oral health-consumers on the WWW.
Childhood dental caries; internet; oral-health information
