Does YouTube™ offer high quality information? Evaluation of accelerated orthodontics videos

Background YouTube (TM) is the foremost source of videos of all kinds of issues. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate videos related to accelerated orthodontic treatment on YouTube (TM) in terms of characteristics, content, popularity and viewers' assessments. Methods Six keywords related to accelerated orthodontic treatment were searched on YouTube (TM). After sorting by view-count, all 116 videos were evaluated, and the exclusion criteria were defined as: another language than English, unrelated to the topic, poor video quality and duplication. The remaining 80 videos were analyzed for general characteristics, primary purpose, information content, audio-visual quality. Also, viewers' interaction index, and viewing rate formulas were calculated for each video. Results The final 80 videos were viewed by users for 177,328 times in total. Most videos were uploaded by an educational institution (n = 40; 50.0%), followed by orthodontists (n = 20; 25.0%). Most of the videos (51.25%) were classified as having excellent general information content, 30.00% were rated as moderate, and 18.75% were rated as poor. The videos generally involved educational content (47.50%), followed by product presentation (20.00%), and then technical details about accelerated orthodontics (11.25%). Only 6.25% of the videos (n = 5) had viewers' interaction index values of greater than 3.00. Videos with excellent content had significantly higher interaction index values than others (p < 0.001). Conclusions YouTube (TM) could be preferred as an important source for patient information about accelerated orthodontics. Reliable informative videos should be uploaded by orthodontists or dental professionals in accelerated orthodontics.