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. 2025 Jan 21;25(1):111.
doi: 10.1186/s12903-025-05483-8.

The impact of dental photography in social media platforms on patients' selection of dentists and type of treatment

Yaser Nizar Alqabbani  1 , Nawaf Khalid Alfhaed  2 , Khaled Fawaz Almasaad  2 , Rahaf Yahya Mahanshi  3 , Faraz Farooqi  4 , Khalifa S Al-Khalifa  5 , Balgis Osman Gaffar  6   7
Affiliations

The impact of dental photography in social media platforms on patients' selection of dentists and type of treatment

Yaser Nizar Alqabbani et al. BMC Oral Health. .

Abstract

Background: Dental photography has many advantages such as improving professional communication, enhancing patient education, and facilitating treatment acceptance. This study investigated the impact of dental photography through social media on patients' choice of dental care providers.

Methods: This cross-sectional survey-based study recruited a convenience sample of adult patients attending selected public and private dental facilities in Saudi Arabia. Data was collected using an online self-administered questionnaire. Participants received the link to the questionnaire through social media of their treating dentists.

Results: A total of 552 completed the survey of whom 289 (52.4%) aged 18-25 years, 291 (52.7%) were males, 336 (60.9%) were bachelors, and the majority 448 (81.2%) had a postgraduate degree. Snapchat was the most commonly used social networking application, n = 190 (34.4%). Females reported they were more likely to report that seeing the previous cases affect their choice of a dentist (2.025(1.253-3.274)) and that social media can affect their choice as well (1.787(1.219-2.621)). While those who never visited the dentist were less likely (0.622(0.395-0.978)) to support the use of dental photography and less likely (0.579(0.362-0.926)) to report that social media affect their choice of a dentist. Instagram was found to be a significant platform for selecting a dentist (OR = 1.132, range; 0.608-2.11) (p-0.05).

Conclusion: The presence of the dentist in social networking sites and sharing of their pre-post treatment cases can be an effective marketing tool especially among females and Instagram users.

Keywords: Dental photography; Dental practice; Marketing; Patient perspective; Social media.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: This study was approved by the Deanship of Scientific Research- Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University (IRB-2022-02-456). Consent to participate: Participation in the study was voluntary, and no incentives were offered to participate in the study to participants or to the dentists who distributed the survey to their patients. Participants were presented with an informed consent form with a preview of the study objectives. Data collection was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations of Deanship of Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal university. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Photos used in the survey were collected from a faculty social media account after their approval. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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