Viral or Valuable? Assessing the Quality of YouTube's Oral Hygiene Advice

Oral hygiene is essential for maintaining oral and general health, yet its practice remains suboptimal in many developing countries. YouTube has emerged as a major source of health-related information, though the quality and reliability of content are often uncertain.

The study aimed to assess the quality and reliability of oral hygiene-related YouTube videos using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and Modified Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information (mDISCERN) tool, with a secondary objective to examine and correlate viewer engagement metrics, including viewing rate and interaction index, in relation to video quality and reliability.

A cross-sectional qualitative content analysis was performed on 100 YouTube videos uploaded between February 2020 and February 2025. Relevant keywords were identified via Google Trends, and videos were selected in incognito mode. Videos were assessed for quality and reliability using GQS and mDISCERN scores, while engagement metrics included views, likes, subscribers, viewing rate, and interaction index.

Videos uploaded by dental professionals scored significantly higher on both GQS and mDISCERN compared to other health professionals or laypersons (p = 0.0001). Longer video duration was positively associated with higher quality and reliability scores (p = 0.02 and p = 0.01). Conversely, videos from channels with more subscribers tended to have lower quality and reliability (p = 0.05 and p = 0.01). Viewer engagement was greater for higher-quality videos despite lower subscriber counts.

Most YouTube oral hygiene videos exhibited moderate to excellent quality, with dental professionals producing the most reliable content. High-quality videos tend to engage viewers more effectively, highlighting the need for authoritative content creation to improve public oral health education.