Instagram and Clear Aligner Therapy: A Content Analysis of Patient Perspectives.
Published:May 20, 2024DOI:https://doi.org/10.1053/j.sodo.2024.05.009
ABSTRACT
Background
The
popularity of clear aligner treatment (CAT) has been on the rise.
Improving treatment satisfaction with CAT requires an in-depth
understanding of the patient's perspectives. Nowadays, patients use
social media to share authentic treatment experiences. This study aimed
to explore the content of CAT-related Instagram posts before, during,
and after CAT.
Materials and Methods
This study used mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. A social media monitoring software, AwarioTM,
was used to collect Instagram CAT-related posts over a 4-week period
and categorize them as positive, negative, and neutral. Three
investigators manually reviewed this categorization. The sentiments of posts before, during, and after treatment were compared using Chi-square. Qualitative analysis of post content was carried out to extract themes relevant to patient experiences.
Results
A
total of 2015 posts were included in the analysis, including posts
before (n=422), during treatment (n=1503), and after CAT (n=90). The
majority (90%) of posts before CAT were positive in sentiment. In
contrast, there were more negative than positive posts during CAT (54.8%
and 45.2% respectively). Among notable sources of negative sentiment
were pain, negative esthetic appearance of attachments, and sleep
difficulties. While 60% of post-treatment posts contained positive
sentiments about treatment outcomes and the patient-clinician
relationship, 40% were negative and focused on the length of treatment
being longer than expected.
Conclusions
High
expectations among the public are prevalent before using CAT.
Discrepant negative sentiments are revealed during treatment due to
pain, attachments, sleep difficulties, and other factors. Patients
reflect negatively on the treatment duration after the treatment is
concluded. Clinicians should focus on these patient perceptions when
counseling them before and during CAT.
Comments