How prevalent is oral health and tobacco-related misinformation on social media? A professor of oral epidemiology and dental public health; a postdoctoral fellow; and a professor of medicine sought to answer that question and subsequently published the results of their research in a featured article in the latest collection of the Journal of the California Dental Association.
The authors analyzed misinformation on Twitter (X) between 2020 and 2022 through 796 Tweets related to oral health and tobacco products. Their analysis identified 52 Tweets that contained misinformation, including exaggerated claims such as that vaping has no negative effects on oral health.
Recognizing that such misinformation has implications for dentists and their patients, the authors discuss how dental professionals can improve their identification of misinformation and provide evidence-based advice.
“As trusted voices for oral health, dentists have a responsibility to provide sound, evidence-based guidance to patients,” said Benjamin W. Chaffee, DDS, MPH, PhD, who co-authored the article with Eileen L. Han, PhD, and Pamela M. Ling, MD, MPH. “Recognizing misinformation on social media will better position us for effective patient communication.”