ArticleBritish dental journal2020
#Wisdomteeth: an analysis of 100 social media posts and a survey on patient perception.
Article in British dental journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Patient Perceptions of Social Media Use by Orthopaedic Surgeons: Comparing Responses Across the United States.Arthroscopy, sports medicine, and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Patient Perception of Social Media Use by Orthopaedic Surgeons: A Pilot Study.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2024Article
- Real dentistry amidst the reels.British dental journal · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background The use of social media to broadcast healthcare-related communications continues to increase in popularity, with dentistry being no exception. Method We have analysed, in real-time over a period of six months, 100 posts on the social media platform Instagram which have used the hashtag '#wisdomteeth'.Results Fifty-one posts were posted by dentists/professional accounts. Sixty-four percent depicted removal of third molars and 12% included images related to third molar eruption or surgery for entertainment purposes. Eight percent featured advice related to complications of retaining third molars. Forty-nine posts collected were posted by patients or members of the public. Fifty-nine percent consisted of images showing patients recovering from third molar removal under a form of sedation and 21% with no indication of sedation being used. Four percent showed patients prior to third molar removal surgery. Imagery inferred for entertainment purposes made up 8%. In our patient survey, 68% of those asked claimed they used social media; however, only 32% had viewed oral surgery-related images on these platforms. The most popular site to view such images was Instagram. Of the ten patients who viewed such images, five had a positive reaction, while two had a negative reaction and three had a neutral reaction.Conclusions Our analysis shows multiple posts of invasive surgery without an advisory warning, which may be unsettling for viewers. There seems to be little regard for patient confidentiality with no mention of consent. Posts from patients mainly focus on the recovery from sedation with honest references to pain, swelling and altered sensation. This all plays a role in the public perception of third molar surgery and can impact on the way that the public views the profession.
Indexed as
Identifiers
32385466What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.