Readability and performance of AI chatbot responses to frequently asked questions in maxillofacial prosthodontics.

Statement of problem: Patients seeking information about maxillofacial prosthodontic care increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI)-driven chatbots for guidance. However, the readability, accuracy, and clarity of these AI-generated responses have not been adequately evaluated within the context of maxillofacial prosthodontics.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the readability and performance of chatbot-generated responses to frequently asked questions about intraoral and extraoral maxillofacial prosthodontics.

Material and methods: A total of 20 frequently asked intraoral and extraoral questions were collected from 7 maxillofacial prosthodontists. These questions were submitted to 4 AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and DeepSeek. A total of 80 responses were evaluated. Readability was assessed using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL). Seven maxillofacial prosthodontists were calibrated to score the chatbot responses on 5 domains, relevance, clarity, depth, focus, and coherence, using a 5-point scale. The obtained data were analyzed using 2-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey tests, Pearson correlation analyses, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) (α=.05).

Results: FKGL scores differed significantly among chatbots (P=.002). DeepSeek had the lowest FKGL, indicating better readability, while ChatGPT had the highest. Word counts, relevance, clarity, content depth, focus, and coherence varied significantly among platforms (P<.005). ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek consistently scored higher, while Copilot had the lowest scores across all domains. For questions on intraoral prostheses, FKGL scores negatively correlated with word count (P=.013). For questions on extraoral prostheses, word count positively correlated with all qualitative metrics except for FKGL (P<.005).

Conclusions: Significant differences were found in both readability and response quality among commonly used AI chatbots. Although the DeepSeek and ChatGPT platforms produced higher-quality content, none consistently met health literacy guidelines. Clinician oversight is essential when using AI-generated materials to answer frequently asked questions by patients requiring maxillofacial prosthodontic care.