Instagram as a social media tool about orthognathic surgery

The aim of this short communication was to evaluate the quality and content of the Instagram posts about orthognathic surgery.

Two hashtags #jawsurgery and #orthognathicsurgery were searched on Instagram in this retrospective Instagram post analysis study. Selected 100 posts for each hashtag were analyzed for type, total number of likes, comments, purpose and source.

Most of the posts about #jawsurgery were uploaded by patients (56.1%) who shared their personal experience. Most of the posts about #orthognathicsurgery also were uploaded by clinics (49.1%). Most of posts (39.6%) provided information about orthognathic surgery in #orthognaticsurgery. Posts generally involved by patient’s experience (49.1%), followed by patient information (28.1%), and advertisement (22.8%) in #jawsurgery.

Patients should be educated by orthodontists and maxillofacial surgeons about Instagram platform that it is not an adequate or accurate source of information about orthognathic surgery in its current form.