It’s tempting to reach out to the ether of the internet to find answers when unexpected oral pain surfaces. To ensure you don’t act too hastily—or incorrectly—& do more harm than good, it’s a best practice to exercise a little skepticism when punching a query into a search engine.
Reasonable Doubts
If you’re experiencing tooth pain, or if you just have a health question, searching online carries a few risks. The internet is a great resource for general education & to brainstorm—even for medical curiosity—but it’s not as good at delivering specific answers that you can trust your health to.
First & probably the most novel is AI. AI answers seem to automatically come with most services these days, & while they can seem intelligent it’s good to remember how most of these bots came to be what they are.AI is trained, that is fed a LOT of information, & in many cases guided early on by humans as to how to interpret it. This opens the doors for a lot of potential problems. First, AI often scrapes the internet for any information that might be relevant, often without regard to legality or the legitimacy of the author. So while some large language models are trained using only authorized data from experts, many—especially free ones—have tons of information fed to it that is faulty & even malicious. Human interpreters may also not be experts in the subjects they are training AI on, and even the mechanism that AI uses to reason—the neural network—has shown researchers several issues, such as the ability to lie.
Even what is now deemed traditional searching is full of pitfalls. Remember all those bad sources AI is trained on? They’re also out there waiting for you to find them. Remember that anyone can post to the internet, & while their motives may not be nefarious, they still may not be using facts & professional resources to deliver quality content.
Finally, be sure to note that there are often a plethora of explanations for an ailment given a fairly broad prompt entered into a computer. Often, the top result is a worst-case scenario. If you have some pain in your tooth, it could be the sign of something more serious, but just because a terrible illness is the top result doesn’t mean it’s the most likely answer. The panic that this can induce is not worth the false sense of knowledge.
How to Spot Bad Answers
For the most part, common sense will prevail. If an answer to your question seems off, it probably is. But if you think maybe you are simply uninformed on a subject, take a look at the sources & solutions. Are sources listed & if so, are they legitimate, respected institutions? For answers that contain remedies, are the remedies encouraging you to use a specific product? Do they feel like an advertisement, full of wonderful adjectives & branded product placement? If you spot any issues when asking these questions, it’s probably best to not consider the advice.
Most dental health articles should also emphasize speaking to a medical professional, instead of taking you through the process of buying something or stating their solution is the only one available. If an article allows for skepticism within it & for common sense consulting, it is more likely to be legitimate, but should still be taken as simply an idea, not as something to act on.
What You Can Do
Be patient. The best thing to do when worried about a health issue is to wait for a time to speak with a medical professional. It can be near intolerable to have an inexplicable pain late at night & wait for the morning, but if you can, you should. If pain is truly too bad to not do something about, it may be time to consider going to a 24-hour urgent care or the emergency room. Some dentists even have emergency lines, which can be useful in dire straits.
If you do decide to research online, it can be best to also research how to ask the right questions. If your question isn’t framed correctly, or is too broad, you won’t get good results. Having specific terms used by experts can refine searches, as well as not asking leading questions that may favor misleading information. Even when questions have been expertly crafted, it’s best to remember they may not generate expert results.
Whether you have a general question about a health problem or are experiencing one, it’s best to remember that the internet is a great resource for a starting point. Researching a topic can help you formulate questions to ask an actual health professional, but are rarely good for anything beyond general advice or informational purposes. Know who the experts are & find a regular dentist to go to. Developing a relationship with them can lead to a life of enhanced oral health & a better state of mind.
Sources:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/oet/ed/stats/03-700.html
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10229003/