Clinical decision-making and the Internet.

The Internet has potential to make dentists more effective decision makers. Statistics are given regarding current patterns of computer use by dentists. Use is primarily for communication rather than decision support. The Internet will increasingly fulfill its promise as an information resource for practitioners as issues such as access, searching, understanding, relevance, and cost are solved. The future of the Internet includes a number of likely enhancements: technical changes, portals, meta-sites, personalization, collaborative filtering, and improved information retrieval.