#implantology: A content analysis of the implant-related hashtags on Instagram

Passent Ellakany; Nourhan M Aly; Mohamed G Hassan

doi:10.1016/j.prosdent.2023.10.013

#implantology: A content analysis of the implant-related hashtags on Instagram

J Prosthet Dent. 2023 Nov 10:S0022-3913(23)00693-5. doi: 10.1016/j.prosdent.2023.10.013. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Passent Ellakany¹, Nourhan M Aly², Mohamed G Hassan³

Affiliations

¹ Lecturer, Department of Substitutive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
² Assistant Lecturer, Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
³ Postdoctoral Research Associate, Division of Bone and Mineral Diseases, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo; Lecturer, Department of Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt, Division of Bone and Mineral Diseases, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo. Electronic address: hmohamed@wustl.edu.

PMID: 37953209
DOI: 10.1016/j.prosdent.2023.10.013

Abstract

Statement of problem: Social media platforms such as Instagram have recently become popular among dentists, dental interest groups, and patients for sharing dental-related information. However, a study that dissects and analyzes implant-related posts on Instagram is lacking.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the type of implant-related information on Instagram by highlighting the characteristics of the top-performing posts and assessing their usefulness as educational content.

Material and methods: A list of 12 implantology-related hashtags on Instagram was searched, and, for each hashtag, data were acquired for the "Top 12 posts" listed by the Instagram search algorithm. The contents of each post, including the number of likes and followers, content type, poster role, post content, theme and type, account type, and accuracy of claims, were collected. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and comparisons were performed by using the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests (α=.05).

Results: The search identified 4 541 867 implant-related posts. The 2 most used hashtags were #dentalimplants (n=1 478 770) and #implant (n=1 303 575). Authorship and content analysis showed that dentists, including specialists, posted about 42% of the posts. More than half of the posts were in the form of pictures (62.5%), self-promotional (77.8%), and used for marketing purposes (61.8%). Most posts were not supported by evidence, and only 27.8% shared clinical facts. However, compared with self-promotional posts, most educational posts shared clinical facts with more likes, views, and followers (P<.001).

Conclusions: More than 4 million posts related to implant dentistry were identified on Instagram. Dental interest groups and patients authored most posts, with less contribution from dentists and specialists. Social media awareness among dentists may enhance the number of educational posts and provide a novel platform for networking and communication.