Quality of Information about Accelerated Orthodontics on Instagram

Abstract

Summary Background/Aim: Social media has become popular in recent years in dentistry. This study aims to evaluate the posts shared on Instagram related to accelerated orthodontic treatment. Material and Methods: The first 100 posts were selected for #acceleratedorthodontics and #speedbraces hashtags and analyzed. The type of posts, posts’ purpose, the source of posts, the number of likes and comments, the number of followers and followings of the users who uploaded the posts were recorded. Four posts in #speedbraces were irrelevant and the remaining 196 posts were evaluated. Results: The sources of the posts include 60 orthodontists, 20 dental pages, 9 dental clinics, 8 periodontologists, 3 surgeons in #acceleratedorthodontics hashtag. Also, 37 posts were preop-postopt, 34 of them were advertising, 14 of them were surgical information, 12 of them were professional information, and 3 of them were personal sharing in #acceleratedorthodontics hashtag. When the aims of the shares were evaluated, it was observed that 56 were for advertisement, 23 were for patient information, 7 were for entertainment, 6 were experience and 4 were preop-postop comparison in #speedbraces hashtag. Conclusions: The posts related to accelerated orthodontics on Instagram are insufficient in terms of the content. The patients should be guided to reach the correct sources of information by orthodontists.