Many patients choose health professionals using the Internet, whether through websites or social media. In orthodontics, an orthodontist’s relationship with active and potential patients can be affected by social media interactions, both as a marketing tool and as a tool for providing educational information. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the public perception of professional credibility and willingness to become a client, based on images posted by orthodontists on Instagram. This was a cross-sectional study performed using a digital self-administered questionnaire based on images from public Instagram profiles of orthodontists found using certain hashtags. The themes of the posts were analyzed through a qualitative analysis, and the results were expressed as categories. After analyzing 2445 images, 12 thematic categories emerged. A total of 446 individuals (225 laypeople, 66 dental students, and 155 dentists) evaluated the images in regard to the perception of professional credibility and willingness to become a client. One-way ANOVA and chi-square tests were applied, considering a 5% significance level. It was found that more than 95% of the participants used social media, primarily Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, and the social network most used to research health services was Instagram. Statistically significant differences were found in the mean value of perceived professional credibility between the groups (p < 0.05) for the following categories: “dental traction,” “mini-implant mechanics,” “before and after treatment,” “aesthetic brackets,” “metallic brackets,” and “clear aligners.” The categories “being a teacher” and “before and after treatment” had a higher impact on the participants’ perception of credibility and willingness to become a client, unlike the “social relationship” and “family relationship” categories. Some of the themes found in the orthodontists’ social media posts were found to influence the perceptions around professional credibility and willingness to become a client, although there were differences among the participants in the present study.

中文翻译：

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正畸医生在社交媒体上发布的图像对公众对专业可信度和成为客户意愿的看法的影响

许多患者通过互联网（无论是通过网站还是社交媒体）选择医疗专业人员。在正畸学中，正畸医生与活跃和潜在患者的关系可能会受到社交媒体互动的影响，社交媒体互动既可以作为营销工具，也可以作为提供教育信息的工具。本研究的目的是根据正畸医生在 Instagram 上发布的图像，分析公众对专业可信度和成为客户意愿的看法。这是一项横断面研究，使用数字自填问卷进行，该调查基于使用某些主题标签发现的正牙医生公共 Instagram 个人资料中的图像。通过定性分析对帖子的主题进行分析，并将结果表示为类别。分析 2445 张图像后，出现了 12 个主题类别。共有 446 人（225 名非专业人士、66 名牙科学生和 155 名牙医）对这些图像进行了评估，了解其专业可信度和成为客户的意愿。应用单向方差分析和卡方检验，考虑 5% 的显着性水平。研究发现，超过 95% 的参与者使用社交媒体，主要是 Instagram、WhatsApp 和 Facebook，其中最常用于研究健康服务的社交网络是 Instagram。在以下类别中，各组之间的感知专业可信度平均值存在统计学显着差异（p < 0.05）：“牙科牵引”、“微型种植体力学”、“治疗前后”、“美容托槽”、 “金属托槽”和“透明矫正器”。与“社会关系”和“家庭关系”类别不同，“作为一名教师”和“治疗前后”类别对参与者的可信度感知和成为客户的意愿有更大的影响。尽管本研究的参与者之间存在差异，但在正牙医生社交媒体帖子中发现的一些主题被发现会影响对专业可信度和成为客户意愿的看法。