Orthodontists on Social Media: Instagram's Influence

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

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.

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.

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.