The power of the written word is considerable. Even today we often tend to take what we read in newspapers, books and journals as being correct and true. We make the assumption the writer has checked the facts, looked at the situation as a whole, done all the homework and written a fair and balanced report, article or story. We do this despite the fact that at times we read about something we understand well and the article is often incorrect and biased. Yet we forget this when read about things we do not know about because life is too short these days to question and check everything, and often we feel it does not matter too much anyway.
Do the same assumptions exist in our dental reading? I suspect they do, because articles in dental publications are often quoted anecdotally or in other articles as if they must be true simply because someone has written them down. The danger in this is obvious. Articles in publications that are not peer-reviewed may not be scrutinised at all but simply published as they stand. They are the views of the author and nothing more. In many situations this may not be too important, but if patient treatment is involved then surely we have a responsibility to be sure the information we read is correct rather than simply assume it is.
