Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Health Promotion
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2024.1420500

Instagram's Impact on Dental Consumers: Analyzing Toothpaste Hashtags

Provisionally accepted
Khalifa S. Al-Khalifa Khalifa S. Al-Khalifa 1*Rasha Alsheikh Rasha Alsheikh 2Basmah O. Alakloby Basmah O. Alakloby 3Hind M. Alharbi Hind M. Alharbi 3Razan F. Alghamdi Razan F. Alghamdi 3Saqib Ali Saqib Ali 4Laila Aldehailan Laila Aldehailan 2
  • 1 Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Damam, Saudi Arabia
  • 2 Department of Restorative Dental Services, College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Damam, Saudi Arabia
  • 3 College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Damam, Saudi Arabia
  • 4 Department of Biomedical Dental Science, College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Damam, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Toothbrushing is the basic step in maintaining oral hygiene and managing caries.The type of toothpaste used, combined with effective toothbrushing techniques, significantly influences oral health outcomes. Information shared on social media platforms can create awareness, generate interest, and influence perceptions regarding toothpaste brands and their benefits. This raised the necessity to comprehensively understand the influence of social media, particularly Instagram, on consumer decision-making processes and behavior related to toothpaste selection. Aim: to explore toothpaste-related content on Instagram by addressing this gap and highlighting the characteristics of the top-performing toothpaste posts. Method: data were acquired for the "Top 12 posts" for each selected hashtag listed by the Instagram search algorithm. The contents of each post, including the number of likes, number of followers, content type, poster role, post content, post theme, post type, and account type were collected. Moreover, whether the poster was a dentist, patient, or dental interest group was identified. Data was then analyzed using SPSS with a statistical significance level set at p=.05. Results: The study analyzed a total of 1,054,985 posts revealing varying levels of engagement and content characteristics. Notably, the #Toothpaste hashtag garnered the highest number of posts, while #ToothpasteNatural had the lowest. Posts were predominantly promotional (61.1%) compared to educational (38.9%), with marketing being the primary theme. Educational content attracted significantly more engagement, with more likes/views and comments than promotional content.

    Keywords: toothpaste, instagram, Fluoride, influencers, Social Media

    Received: 20 Apr 2024; Accepted: 10 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Al-Khalifa, Alsheikh, Alakloby, Alharbi, Alghamdi, Ali and Aldehailan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Khalifa S. Al-Khalifa, Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Damam, Saudi Arabia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.