Orthodontic clear aligners and TikTok videos: A content, reliability and quality analysis

The social media platform, TikTok, has the potential to disseminate orthodontic information to an enormous global audience. The aim of this investigation was to assess the content, reliability and quality of videos regarding orthodontic clear aligners (OCAs) on the TikTok platform. Three search terms were used to identify relevant videos. Characteristics such as video source and the number of views were documented. An 8-point information domain score was applied to categorise the videos as “not useful”, “slightly useful”, “moderately useful” and “very useful”. The DISCERN tool and the Global Quality Score (GQS) were used to evaluate video reliability and quality. Intraclass coefficients (ICC) were computed for intrarater reliability. Statistical analyses were via IBM® SPSS®, version 27.0.0.0 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). Of the 117 videos that satisfied inclusion/exclusion criteria, most were uploaded by laypersons (44.4%) and orthodontists (35.9%). The assessed videos had over 300 million views. The overall mean (SD) number of information domains present in the videos was 1.85/8 (1.73). Most videos were deemed “slightly useful” (54.7%) or “not useful” (26.5%). The overall mean (SD) DISCERN score was 1.8/5 (1.28). The overall mean (SD) GQS was 2.48/5 (0.86). Higher DISCERN scores correlated with higher GQS (r = 0.73; P < 0.01). ICC scores (0.92–0.94) indicated excellent intrarater reliability. The content, reliability and quality of videos found on TikTok related to OCAs was poor. The orthodontic profession must direct patients to reliable and high-quality resources as well as uploading content onto TikTok to counteract the deficiencies highlighted in this study.