How we check facts

A publication about a health-adjacent subject has to be clear about how it knows what it says. This page sets out the working method. It is deliberately plain, because the aim is to let readers judge the pages for themselves rather than to ask for trust.

Opened sources only

A claim goes into a page only if the editors opened the source and the source says it. A search result, a summary written by someone else or a quotation passed along in an article does not count. If a page cannot be opened, or does not support the sentence, the sentence is cut. Where a topic could not be properly sourced, the page is shorter rather than padded. Each page ends with a list of the sources used and what each supported.

Which sources we prefer

For clinical and technical statements we prefer peer-reviewed reviews and trials, public health agencies, national health services and hospital patient information. For history we prefer museum and institutional pages, scholarly histories and journal reviews, and where a magazine feature is the best available account, such as the Smithsonian Magazine piece on First World War masks, we say so in the entry. We avoid clinic marketing pages as evidence, and we do not cite encyclopedias of the crowd-edited kind. We do not name or recommend products, practitioners or clinics.

When sources disagree

History is untidy. The two sources we use for the start of the First World War mask department give different years, 1915 and 1916, and the timeline says so instead of choosing one. Lifespans of silicone prostheses range from about 6 months to about 2 years across the sources we read, and the materials page gives the range with its attribution. When a figure comes from one study, we say which, and when a study is small or done on laboratory samples rather than people, we say that too.

Medical caution

This is educational material. The editors are not clinicians and make no claim of medical review, clinical experience, testing or qualifications, and nothing here is personal advice. We report what authoritative bodies and published studies say and avoid telling anyone to start, stop or change care. Pages that touch practical care point readers back to their own clinical team and say when to seek help; for a sudden change in the face, the page on facial nerve problems lists the emergency signs.

No invented people or quotes

We do not publish case studies, testimonials or quotations unless they appear word for word in a source we opened, and then we attribute them. Hypothetical examples are described in general terms. Where first-hand accounts do not exist in the record, as with many wearers of First World War masks, we say that they do not.

Corrections

If you find an error or a better source, please write to the editors using the form on the contact page. Corrections are made on the page itself and the update date changes. Readers can also see what the site is for and what it is not on the about page, which is the right place to start if you are unsure how far to rely on any page here.