Kamarudin, Yasmin and Zakaria, Nor Nadia and Xinhui, Violette Ong (2022) Orthodontics on sale: Fixed appliances on E-commerce platforms. Australasian Orthodontic Journal, 38 (1). pp. 22-28. ISSN 2207-7472, DOI https://doi.org/10.21307/aoj-2022.003.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Introduction The sale of orthodontic materials, considered as medical devices, is regulated in order to protect patients. The availability of orthodontic products on e-commerce platforms, however, may go unregulated and compromise patient safety. Objective The present study aimed to investigate the sale of fixed orthodontic appliances on a local and global e-commerce platform. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional analysis of orthodontic materials sold on Shopee and Amazon was conducted using a specific keyword search for brackets, arch wires and ligatures. After deleting duplicates and irrelevant search results, the top 50 products for each keyword search were analysed. Product name, the type of product, seller, cost, star rating, the number of reviews, the number of sales, shipping location and brand identification were recorded. Brand registration with a medical device regulatory authority was checked. Collected data were tabulated in Google (spread)sheet to derive descriptive statistics and frequency tables. Results A total of 800 search results were screened. Three hundred and forty-eight relevant results were identified, approximately two-thirds of which originated from Shopee. Ligatures generated the highest search outcome in both Shopee (39%) and Amazon (80%). Fixed orthodontic materials sold on Shopee resulted in a larger number of reviews, higher star ratings and a lower cost per item compared to those supplied by Amazon. Products on Amazon were more likely to have brand identification (97%) compared to Shopee (5%). None of the identifiable brands on Shopee were registered with regulatory bodies, whereas eight products listed on Amazon were registered. A large portion of shipping locations originated from China for both e-commerce platforms. Conclusions Orthodontic brackets, arch wires and ligatures are more readily available on Shopee compared to Amazon. The quality and safety of these products cannot be assured as the majority of the products were either not clearly labelled or their registration was not identified under the regulation of medical devices.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | None |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Orthodontic materials; Medical devices; Global e-commerce platform |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > RK Dentistry |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Dentistry |
| Depositing User: | Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Oct 2023 07:43 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Oct 2023 00:52 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/42373 |
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