Over the past 20 years, the Internet has increasingly gained in importance and has acquired a key role in society as a central means of communications and an information platform. At the beginning of 2014, 76.6% of the German population aged 10 years or older used the Internet. Among the group of users aged 10-39 years, this number amounted to nearly 100% [1]. Health issues seem to be a major field of interest. A German study has shown that 37.7% of the population and 64.5% of Internet users use online research to look for health-related information [2]. In the United States, 88% of adults looked for information concerning health issues on the Internet [3]. In another representative survey in Germany, 11% of the people questioned stated that they had researched dental issues on the Internet at least once [4]. In summary, this illustrates a change in the patient’s role from passive receiver to active user of health-related information on the Internet [5].

This may also reflect the trend in patients wishing to be informed more effectively about the content and quality of medical care provision. However, a balanced and robust judgment of the quality of medical treatment is rarely possible for patients because of a lack of publicly accessible information [6]. Family, friends, and acquaintances still appear to be the most important source of information when looking for a doctor [7,8]. Public reporting has helped to increase the transparency of the quality of medical care [9-12], yet this offer is only accepted hesitantly at the moment [13]. A lack of understanding of the offered medical information, a lack of confidence in the information, and several other reasons might explain a patient’s inability to use the existing platforms on the Internet [14].

Although the existing research has increasingly dealt with patient satisfaction, an overall supply of information about doctors, practices, or hospitals is still missing [15]. Because social media are easily available, easy to use, and are used by the majority of the population, a growing number of people share health care experiences online or rate their health care provider on physician rating websites [16]. Of the nearly 28 million German users of physician rating websites, 56% are female and 44% are male [17]. Despite some studies dealing with physician rating websites [3,18-21], neither national nor international research regarding the rating of dentists on physician rating websites have been published. The intention of this paper is to present the first study on dentist ratings on a German physician rating website (Jameda) analyzing (1) the characteristic features of both dentists and patients, (2) the number and distribution of rating results, (3) the influence of characteristics of dentists rated and rating patients on the submitted grades, and (4) the development of dentist ratings on a physician rating website over 2 consecutive years.

Currently, most patients seek advice from friends or relatives, or choose a doctor within their vicinity when searching for a physician [7,23]. This behavior, however, could be changing because of the increasing use of physician rating websites, which have been shown to be gaining in attention and importance [15]. The latter statement can be backed by the results of this study, showing an increase in the number of ratings of 65.08% within 2 years. This increase is in contrast with the attitude of German dentists toward physician rating websites. In a survey performed in 2012, only 14.4% of German dentists questioned thought that being rated on a physician rating website was of great or comparatively great relevance for their practices. However, 64.7% of the participants believed that physician rating websites will become more important in the future [24].

According to our results, 33.69% (18,069/53,626) of all German dentists have been rated at least once in 2013. Comparing this figure with the results of the previously published study [18], this percentage is only slightly lower than for other physicians in Germany (37%). Compared with additional national or international literature dealing with ratings on physician rating websites, the percentage of rated dentists rated in Germany is fairly high. According to a study by Gao and colleagues [19], approximately 16% of all doctors listed were rated on the Canadian physician rating website RateMDs between 2005 and 2010, whereas Lagu and colleagues [25] determined a percentage of 27% in the case of 300 doctors. An analysis of different German physician rating websites showed that between 3% and 28% of doctors had been rated at least once on different German physician rating websites in 2012 [21].

The mean number of ratings per dentist was 2.06 (SD 2.99) in 2012, slightly lower than for other German physicians at 2.37 [18]. Strech and Reimann [21] analyzed several German physician rating websites and calculated a mean between 1.1 and 3.9 ratings per physician. Results for websites in the United States show similar results: 2.35 [25], 2.4 [26], and 3.2 [19]. In 2012, 61.96% of dentists had been rated once; this number declined to 54.72% in 2013. Thereby, the percentage of dentists with between 2 and 5 ratings increased from 32.92% in 2012 to 36.54% in 2013. In the comparative study, 49.7% of doctors were rated only once and 43.7% of the doctors received between 2 and 5 ratings [18]. In both studies, the percentage of doctors with 10 or more ratings was less than 5%. An analysis of the United States portal, RateMDs, showed similar results; half of doctors received 1 evaluation and 12.5% were rated more than 5 times [19].

In general, these results show positive rating results for German dentists (eg, 89.21% of all ratings were in the top 2 categories). These results are in-line with the results of a nationwide survey on public attitude to, and assessment of, dental care in Germany. This indicates that dentists enjoy a very good reputation. On a 4-stage scale, 91% of the people questioned are either “rather satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their dentist [4]. In another study addressing patient perspective on the quality of oral health care in Germany, the overall satisfaction with dental care was 4.66 (SD 0.55) on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) [27]. Other studies have also previously shown a tendency toward good ratings on physician rating websites in Germany [18] and in the United States [19,25,26]. The results presented by MacKay and colleagues [28] were slightly lower; 70% of the comments on RateMDs were favorable toward Canadian physicians. Similar results were provided from a study on the usage of NHS Choices, a United Kingdom government website that encourages patients to rate the quality of physician practices. Between October 2009 and December 2010, approximately 61% of family practices were rated and the practice was recommended in 69% of the ratings [11]. According to the authors, governmental websites may create a selection bias toward less satisfied patients.

In our study, the median score of all questions was 1.00 (mean 1.42) which is in-line with the other literature. Strech and Reimann [21] calculated an average score of between 1.1 and 1.5 on a 3-stage scale (1=good; 3=bad) for different German physician rating websites. In the comprehensive analysis conducted by Kadry and colleagues [3] regarding the 10 most frequently visited physician rating websites in the United States, a mean rating of 77 (based on a 100-point scale), 3.84 (based on a 5-point scale), and 3.1 (based on a 4-point scale) was shown.

Female dentists received better ratings. This might be explained by the fact that female physicians engage in significantly more active partnership behaviors, positive talk, psychosocial counseling, psychosocial question asking, and emotionally focused talk. Medical visits were shown to be 2 minutes longer with female physicians than those with male physicians [29]. Furthermore, female patients tend to evaluate more positively compared to their male counterparts. Götz and colleagues [27] also found that female patients showed a higher overall satisfaction with dental care than male patients did. This is in contrast to another German analysis of physician rating websites showing that male patients tended to rate more positively [30]. Furthermore, it could be shown that privately insured patients tend to give better ratings more often than those covered by statutory health insurance do (P<.001). One reason for this could be seen in the easier access to medical services. In-line with the comparative study, middle-aged patients (aged between 30-50 years) gave the most ratings [18]. Furthermore, better ratings were most likely to be seen in the oldest age group (older than 50 years), which is similar to findings in another study showing higher overall satisfaction scores with oral health care in older patients [27].

Furthermore, our analysis revealed a slight but significant deterioration in ratings (P<.05). Regarding the dental subdisciplines, only periodontologists and endodontists showed a slight but significant decline in rating level. The reason for this change cannot be derived from the data available. In 2012 and 2013, orthodontists (who generally treat children and youths) were rated lowest. One possible explanation might be that orthodontic treatment is a long-term process that is often partly or fully financed privately. The copayment might lead to dissatisfaction and consequently lower ratings. In their survey with more than 8000 patients about the quality of oral health care, Götz and colleagues [27] found the domain “costs of care” was rated least positively and they subsequently recommended adequate explanation and information about treatment costs as an essential aspect of dental care. However, noncompliance by patients leading to unsatisfactory results should also be considered a possible reason. According to the estimations of two-thirds of German orthodontists, 30%-60% of their patients develop problems of cooperation during the orthodontic treatment. Up to 15% of patients even cancel their therapy [31]. Another explanation for the relatively low ratings for orthodontists might be found in the rating patients’ expectations. It might add value in this context to assess whether the ratings were given by the children themselves or their parents. In case the parents left a rating, one might argue that parents want the very best for their children and could be disappointed much more easily compared to when they visit a doctor for themselves. In contrast, children might be more critical because they want to have good-looking teeth (eg, no braces), preferably in a very short period of treatment. This, however, is not feasible because orthodontic corrections need time. Regarding the age distribution of the rating patients, the latter seems to be more likely. The proportion of rating patients aged 30 years or younger is by far the highest among all dental subdisciplines. Here, approximately 44.74% of the rating patients were aged 30 years or younger, whereas only 6.95% were aged 50 years or older (see Table 4).

The limitations to this study are as follows. Although the study was based on a large dataset and its results are in-line with other studies, the major limitation is the fact that only 1 physician rating website was included in our analysis; evaluations of other physician rating websites could lead to different results. Future studies should aim at comparing different German physician rating websites and analyzing the current number of ratings and the number of physicians rated, but also differences in rating patients and rated physicians. Applying those criteria might lead to other “most important” German physician rating websites. Unfortunately, a more in-depth analysis regarding the use of physician rating websites according to sociodemographic data was not possible because of a lack of data. In this context, a recently published study analyzing the variables which influence the usage of physician rating websites could demonstrate that sociodemographic variables alone do not sufficiently predict use or nonuse of physician rating websites; specific psychographic variables and health status additionally need to be taken into account [32]. Because rating is anonymous, rating values are not risk-adjusted and, therefore, vulnerable to fraud. People providing feedback on health care services via social media are presumably not always representative of the patient population in general. Next, we were not able to present an analysis over a longer period of time. However, our study is the first evidence from Germany covering 2 consecutive years. Finally, the purpose of this paper was to give further insight into the nature of dentists’ ratings, not to discuss the usefulness of the ratings for the patients when seeking a dentist. In this context, several studies have raised concerns about the helpfulness and support of such sites from a patient’s perspective [33-35]. A comprehensive overview of the major shortcomings of physician rating websites (eg, incomplete databases, low percentage of rated physicians, the potential to reflect the quality of care) was also recently provided by a systematic review [36].

In conclusion, an increasing trend toward the rating of physicians on a physician rating website in Germany is shown. The total number of ratings rose by 65.08% between 2012 and 2013. So far, 44.57% of all German dentists have been evaluated by patients at least once. However, this means that more than half of dentists in Germany are still without any evaluation. The increase in ratings over the 2-year study period indicates a growing interest among the population to evaluate the quality of oral health care providers. Many of the results presented here are in-line with the other national and international literature in this area. The overall satisfaction of patients with dentists seems to be comparable to other medical specialties. In a patient-centered approach, it is essential to assess the quality of health care from a patient’s perspective. Information available on social media (such as physician rating websites) has gained more attention in the literature recently (eg, [9,19,20]). Therefore, they may possibly have a positive effect on the encouragement of health competence and equal opportunities of patients [21]. So far, it remains unclear whether and how online rating may reflect the technical quality of care, the measuring of patient experiences and satisfaction, and how care is being assessed. Nevertheless, the existence of physician rating websites is likely to continue and will remain an important aspect of oral health care evaluation. physician rating websites might contribute to reducing the lack of publicly available information on the quality of care [18]. Future research should explore whether social media, such as physician rating websites, are suitable in practice for patients, health insurers, and governments to help them evaluate the quality of performance of medical professionals [16].