The Quality of Information on Instagram About Teeth Whitening

Objective: With the increasing importance of visual and aesthetic factors, coupled with the emergence of the influence of social media, teeth whitening procedures have become one of the most sought-after dental aesthetic treatments by patients. The study aims to evaluate the quality of informational content in publicly shared Instagram posts related to teeth whitening.Methods: A total of 1000 posts were scanned on Instagram using the hashtag #teethwhitening. Posts were evaluated using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and the reliability of information toolkits. Statistical analysis was performed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn Test. A significance level of P.050 was adopted.Results: A total of 45 photos and 53 video shares that met the criteria were analyzed. Posts were shared by dentists (38 posts), clinics (35 posts), and patients (25 posts). It was determined that the information reliability scores of Instagram video shares related to #teethwhitening were quite low. Both the information reliability score and the Global Quality Scale score showed a significant difference between the videos shared by dentists and those shared by clinics (P.05). The videos shared by dentists had higher information reliability scores and Global Quality Scale scores.Conclusion: Given that social media is commonly utilized as a platform for accessing medical information, dentists need to stay informed about the content available on Instagram.Keywords: Teeth whitening, instagram, social media, bleaching, dentistry