PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITAL DENTISTRY

digital_dentistryesra_kulkapak

THE USE AND EFFECTIVENESSOF DIGITAL CHANNELS IN DENTISTRY (SOCIAL MEDIA AND MARKETING)

Aybike Baş Öztürk

Atatürk University, Faculty Dentistry, Department of Pedodontics, Erzurum, Türkiye

Baş Öztürk A. The use and Effectiveness of Digital Channels in Dentistry (Social Media and Marketing). In: Kul E, editor. Perspectives on Digital Dentistry. 1st ed. Ankara: Türkiye Klinikleri; 2025. p.259269.

ABSTRACT

Advancements in technology have allowed for the creation of new webbased digital channels, of which social media (SM) has become one of the most effective. Although SM is primarily used for entertainment and social interaction, its professional use has been steadily increasing. SM has become an important part of almost every sector, including dentistry. The main areas of SM use in dentist ry include interactions among professionals, the presentation of educational content, patientdoctor communication, the digital marketing of treatment services, and dental products. The professional use of SM by dentists and dental students is also growing. This trend is facilitating the sharing of profes sional knowledge and experiences, increasing intraprofessional solidarity, creating opportunities for collaboration, and promoting scientific content and meetings. Dental students can access educational content more easily, allowing quicker access to information and resources, which motivates them and fosters increased sharing of professional knowledge and support among students. The advantages of SM should also be considered from the patient perspective. As billions of people use SM, it allows for an increase in the amount of SM content on various topics, enabling users to access information more readily. Therefore, many dentists today promote and market treatment services and dental products via SM. This enables them to reach a large number of potential patients from different geographical locations and strengthen their professional image by sharing their clinical skills and patient satisfac tion. The fact that SM shares have no geographical boundaries is also important for health tourism. The demand for dental services in health tourism is steadily increasing, and the use of SM makes the marketing of health tourism easier and more effective. While the use of SM in the field of dentistry provides significant advantages, it is clear that false information and unethical content present are also present. To prevent this, it would be effective for dentists to learn how to use SM professionally and produce more informative content.

Keywords: Social media; Marketing; Communications media; Dentistry education; Dental health services

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