Orthodontists on Social Media: Instagram's Influence.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine how orthodontists utilize the social media application Instagram for health communication.

Methods: Four Turkish keywords were manually searched on the Instagram platform on February 12, 2022: "orthodontist" (ortodontist), "orthodontics" (ortodonti), "orthodontic specialist" (ortodonti uzmanı), and "doctor of orthodontist" (ortodonti doktoru). A total of 195 orthodontist accounts matching the inclusion criteria were divided into two groups: public and private. Profile information analyses were performed, and the results for public and private accounts were compared. Public accounts were further divided by gender and whether they shared a company name in their profiles. Groups were compared according to post content and type of patient photo. Statistical analysis involved the Shapiro-Wilk test, an Independent Samples t-test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and chi-square and Kappa tests.

Results: The number of posts (96.06±149.30 vs. 195.36±248.51) and followers (1,250.56±2,347.47 vs. 4,071.43±6,557.63) were higher for public accounts. The number of followers (3,171.62±4,645.08 vs. 5,472.57±8,595.99) and daily posts (0.17±0.37 vs. 0.23±0.43) were higher for accounts with a company name. In the content analysis, posts on clear aligners (1.51±4.74 vs. 6.60±18.60, p<0.05) and patient and company advertisements were more common (0.49±1.85 vs. 3.70±10.70, p<0.05) for accounts with a company name.

Conclusion: While public orthodontist accounts commonly promote fixed mechanics as a treatment option, accounts with a company name adopt a different approach, emphasizing the sharing of information about clear aligners.