earticle

영어

Background: This study was aimed at investigating the perception of social network service (SNS) users regarding dental office visits and determining the proportion of dental SNS users among general SNS users. Methods: We surveyed 177 adults using SNSs. Dental SNS characteristics were classified into information provision, interaction, recency, reliability, and interest, and the recognition level of each area was surveyed on a 5-point scale. The total number of items was 17, including three information provision, three interaction, four recency, four reliability, and three interest items. Results: Among the five domains, the recognition level was the highest for reliability (3.51 points) and the lowest for interest (2.94 points). Among the 17 items, the recognition level was the highest for “Educational information provided by dental SNS is valuable” at 3.60 points, “Dental SNS educational video is useful for information sharing and dental knowledge improvement” at 3.53 points, and “The perceived educational information of dental SNS is reliable” at 3.51 points. Participants in their 20s and 30s had higher scores for being up-to-date (3.33 and 2.88 points, respectively) and reliability (3.59 and 3.09 points, respectively) than those in their 40s or older. The recognition level of all areas of dental SNS characteristics was significantly higher for experienced dental SNS users than for nonexperienced ones. Conclusions: The results of this study suggested that dental institutions should consider ways to utilize SNS for patient management and education and that dental SNS-related contents should contain educational and reliable information to help SNS users manage their oral health.