|  | | | | | | Editorial Policy
Simple Steps To Better Dental Health® strives to educate and empower users with trusted solutions for healthier lives. You should be aware that the words, images and tools on our site are provided for informational purposes only. These materials can be used to enhance your relationship with your health-care professional, but they are not intended to provide medical and dental advice or serve as a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment. Users always should consult promptly with a dental or medical professional for diagnosis and treatment of specific health problems. The use of our site is subject to our disclaimer.
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Our editors and dental professionals at our academic content partner decide which topics should be included on our site. The goal is to provide information that will address the most common topics and conditions. New topics are chosen based on consumer interest, new developments that influence current dental practice, advances in prevention and the prevalence of conditions.
Newly created material may originate from our staff, a contracted writer or a dental professional. All text pieces, graphics and tools are subject to a standardized review process, which includes approval by dental professionals at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, before content is placed on the site.
Simple Steps To Better Dental Health editors go to great lengths to meet our goal of providing accurate, current and useful patient-education information. To do this, we rely primarily on the expertise of our academic partner. Before material created by us is posted on our site, professionals at that institution review the material for medical accuracy.
Simple Steps To Better Dental Health writers and editors develop content in partnership with our academic content partner.
Our editors also may use content from government agencies and nonprofit organizations to enhance the information on our site. We only use material from agencies and organizations that have been approved as quality sources of information by the editorial team from our academic content partner.
Like other websites, we use news articles provided by prominent news agencies (such as the Associated Press and the New York Times News Service).
The Associated Press was founded in 1848 and is the oldest and largest news organization in the world, serving as a source of news, photos, graphics, audio and video for more than a billion people a day. The Associated Press has more than 3,500 people working in more than 240 bureaus around the world.
The New York Times News Service is the world's largest supplemental news service, distributing The Times as well as coverage from 12 partners, including Cox News Service and Hearst News Service, to 650 clients in more than 50 countries.
We want you to know the source of the material you view on our site.
These are the types of source identifications you will see, either at the top or the bottom of the material:
- "Reviewed by the Faculty of Columbia University College of Dental Medicine" — This identifies content created by us and reviewed by members of the faculty of Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, our current academic partner.
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Any material provided by government agencies and nonprofit organizations is identified by the name and/or logo of the agency or organization at the top of the page.
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News articles that we obtain from a news service are identified with a date at the top of the article and the name and/or logo of the news service at the beginning of the article. News articles written by our staff writers are identified with the author's name followed by "InteliHealth News Service." Simple Steps To Better Dental Health is created by Aetna InteliHealth Inc.
- "Ask The Dentist" — These questions are submitted by consumers and answered by dental professionals. The responses include information about the professionals' backgrounds, credentials and current positions.
Columbia University College of Dental Medicine does not endorse any other organizations, companies, or products mentioned on Simple Steps To Better Dental Health.
We may provide links to federal agencies or private organizations that we feel may be of benefit to our site users. These links are provided as a convenience and are for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement.
Our editors and the faculty of our academic content partner maintain absolute editorial independence. That means that we make decisions about the information on our site free of outside influence. Our content partner has editorial control over the medical accuracy of the materials we create for our site.
Our website may receive funding from third parties who pay for the right to advertise their companies and products on our site. This funding supports our efforts to develop the most comprehensive and credible patient-education website. At times, third parties pay for the right to sponsor certain areas of information on our site. We may agree to develop information about a certain topic in return for this sponsorship. However, we develop this information in accordance with our editorial policies and practices; sponsors have no editorial input or influence on the information itself.
Content on the site is reviewed systematically to make sure it is up-to-date. The date of the most recent review or update is noted at the bottom of each article or tool.
Our editors and the faculty of our academic content partner create content for the site. Faculty of our academic content partner reviews and edits this content for medical accuracy.
We use experienced writers and editors to prepare material for professional review. We also retain experienced freelance writers and editors to assist our staff with this work. Our writers and editors have past experience with professional writing or editing of health content.
We have a Conflict of Interest Policy for our writers and editors that requires them to reveal to us potential conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest may be financial relationships, affiliations with groups or organizations or personal actions. The goal of our policy is to provide consumers with patient-education information on our site that is as free of bias as possible. We require our writers and editors to excuse themselves from working on material and projects for which potential conflicts exist, that is, where a writer or editor has a relationship that could potentially bias the person's work on a particular topic.
This editorial policy may be revised periodically. When we make significant changes that affect our editorial policies and practices, we will post a notice on the Simple Steps To Better Dental Health homepage for 30 days.
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