braz dent j, vol.31, no.4, pp.392-398, 2020 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
This study aimed to analyze the videos available on YouTube related to dentistry and the
novel coronavirus (COVID-19), as there is no such analysis in the existing literature. The
terms “dental” and “COVID-19” were searched on YouTube on May 9, 2020. The top 116
English-language videos with at least 300 views were analyzed by two observers. Data
was saved for each video, including target audience, source, country of origin, content,
number of views, time watched, average views, duration, like/dislike ratio, and usefulness.
Total video information and quality index (VIQI) scores were calculated, consisting of
flow, information, accuracy, quality, and precision indices. Non-parametric tests were
used for analysis. The analyzed videos were viewed 375,000 times and totaled 20 h of
content. Most videos were uploaded by dentists (45.7%), originated from the United States
(79.3%), and contained information targeted towards patients (48.3%). Nearly half of
the videos (47.4%) were moderately useful. For the usefulness of the videos, statistically
significant differences were found for all indices as well as total VIQI scores. A comparison
of the indices according to the relevance of the videos showed statistically significant
differences in the videos’ information and precision indices and total VIQI scores. The
results of this study showed that dentistry YouTube videos related to COVID-19 had high
view numbers; however, the videos were generally moderate in quality and usefulness.