In its 2025 Health and Media Annual Tracking Survey, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) found that 62% of respondents encountered health content that later turned out to be false or misleading—an 8% increase over what was reported in last year’s survey. All members of our broader medical community have the responsibility to contribute favourably to the quality of content, and to also actively fight it.
Myths about misinformation
In the survey, respondents reported how medical professionals like you are the most trusted source of health information, with 56% noting that doctors’ and academic researchers’ expertise is the “most important signal of accuracy.” You have unique access and opportunities to combat potentially harmful myths in two key ways:
- By educating your clients on what misinformation actually is and how to spot it – Develop helpful information to support patients’ abilities to discern reliable and accurate content from questionable (or worse) items.
- By really listening to your clients and identifying areas of confusion or dangerous misconceptions – You can then craft communications that address those specific areas head-on.
To the first point, it is important for health care consumers to understand misinformation comes in different foul “flavours.” While it is often used as a blanket term for all inaccurate or untrue info, misinformation is false or misleading content shared without the intent to deceive. It may arise due to a misinterpretation of terminology or research on the part of writers who do not have your clinical expertise or a background in research procedures and how to accurately scrutinise them. Or it may occur as the result of information being “rehashed” and recycled across the Internet.
Just like the childhood telephone game, the more info is recycled, edited, paraphrased, reworked, and shortened, the greater the chances for important items to be omitted or to be erroneously interpreted and communicated. The latter scenario is particularly prevalent when distilling scientific or research info with numerous technical and medical terms and moving parts.
Disinformation is another animal completely. It is nefarious, with the intent of purposely and maliciously spreading false information to mislead others and to advance one’s personal agenda and/or to knowingly obfuscate. The World Health Organization provides tips on how consumers can report misinformation and disinformation. This content may be helpful when developing communications for your own practice. As always, communications should be actionable and meaningful. It pays to empower your patients with strategies to spot untruths like:
- Too-good-to-be-true claims
- Overly dramatic or emotional language
- Overconfident anecdotes with little to no supporting evidence
- Little room for “grey areas”; credible sources tend to be less black and white especially when discussing recent findings from studies in advancements
- Extreme negative emotions or associations, which tend to be favoured in the social media algorithms and present a particular risk for the Gen Z and Millennial consumer (these generations self-report that they get most of their news from social channels)
Action items for your office
When developing communications that address some of the top dental myths and misconceptions, it helps to demonstrate patience, understanding, and compassion. If the tone of your content can be construed in any way as dismissive, like you are looking down upon the reader or listener, or incredulous that they could believe such things, it will do you far more harm than good. To get positive results that then have a positive impact on your patient’s oral health, always convey an attitude of kindness and appreciation for the overabundance of health information (of varying quality) online. You can even express this sentiment in your content, along the lines of, “We know there’s a lot of information to sort through online, so we consider it a privilege to provide you with trustworthy insights on [topic/misconception] and help clear up common misunderstandings.”
Remember: A patient’s possibly deep-seated beliefs were not built overnight. It can take time and a little bit of grace for them to abandon those beliefs, especially if it means that they have to also abandon the online communities that fueled those beliefs in the first place! This is especially true for patients who may be socially isolated, and lean into online forums and other platforms for a connection to others, possibly their only connection.
Beyond the above items, many of the ingredients that are critical to quality content as a whole also play into fighting misinformation and building trust among your community.
- Think in terms of concise, evidence-based information. Try to stay away from or minimise overly dramatic, generalized, and emotional claims. While personal stories can be very effective, it is best to think like a professionally-trained reporter. For instance, patients should share their stories in a way where it sounds like they are sitting across the table from you, enjoying a cup of coffee—not in a way that comes across as overly sensational or “salesy.” Be authentic.
- Creating brochures or a “hub” on your website that lists and addresses common dental myths can be incredibly helpful and productive. Plus, you can always add and delete items over time as additional concerns present themselves or, conversely, as well-established concerns morph or are no longer relevant to current circumstances.
- You may even wish to attach such educational content to appointment reminders or regularly insert it into email blasts and newsletters.
- Since seeing is still believing and has not yet been completely eroded by AI “deep fakes,” you may wish to create “companion content” or videos on your website and YouTube that actively show the untruths behind common oral health myths.
- Lastly, if you do use information from third-party sources, no matter the credibility of the source, always vet that information to ensure that it aligns with your values (and to, of course, ensure no questionable content has snuck its way past the medical reviewer).
Final note
Perhaps the scariest finding from the CMA survey is that 39% of those surveyed reported having a bad or adverse reaction and negative health impacts due to advice found online. By nurturing the quality of your own content and actively acknowledging and addressing the risk of health misinformation/disinformation, you are supporting a healthier, more engaged, and stronger community.
About the author
Naren Arulrajah, President and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, has been a leader in medical marketing for over a decade. Ekwa provides comprehensive marketing solutions for busy dentists, with a team of more than 180 full time professionals, providing web design, hosting, content creation, social media, reputation management, SEO, and more. If you’re looking for ways to boost your marketing results, call 855-598-3320 for a free strategy session with Naren. You may also schedule a session at your convenience with the Senior Director of Marketing – Lila, by clicking https://www.ekwa.com/msm/.