Are YouTube videos on regenerative endodontic procedure reliable source for patient edification?

Abstract

Introduction: Regenerative endodontic procedure (REP), a biologically based procedure, designed to restore damaged structures such as dentin, root structure, and cells of the pulp-dentine complex. Patients have started using YouTube (YT) as a source of oral information. Hence, this study was planned to appraise the educational worth of REP videos available on YT. Materials and Methods: YT search was conducted by means of the keyword “REP” which yielded 348 videos. Only 21 videos were complying with the inclusion criteria. REP-data quality score (DQS) was developed for rating the quality of these videos (0–20 points). Four-blinded evaluators reviewed and scored all videos according to REP-DQS. The global quality score (GQS) was used for the score validation. Reviewer's bias was addressed by intra-class correlation coefficient. Internal consistency of REP-DQS score was checked by Cronbach alpha. Results: Test-retest reliability of both REP-DQS and GQS scores was good which is represented by high degree of conformity between all reviewers. GQS and REP-DQS scores were found to be having a positive linear correlation. REP-DQS was not found to be correlated with any of the video characteristics such as number of views, likes-dislikes, comments, and duration of video. Conclusion: It is crucial that dental professionals acclimatize to the changing times of contemporary technology. It is the responsibility of dental professional to convey their patients about the shortcomings of YT videos with its judicious use to gain accurate information.

Keywords

• digital social media
• global quality score
• regenerative endodontic procedure
• revascularization
• youtube