TODENTJ-25-03-2019_TODENTJ-13-101 1553507737 Bentham Open doi@benthamopen.net Bentham Open The Open Dentistry Journal TODENTJ 1874-2106 02 28 2019 13 1 Abed A-H Hamasha Nasser Alghofaili Abdulrahman Obaid Mohammed Alhamdan Abdulrahman Alotaibi Mohammed Aleissa Menwer Alenazi Faisal Alshehri Amritha Geevarghese Objective: To assess the dental practitioners' use of social media, concerning demographic and social variables and the impact of social media use on dental practice. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional analytical study of dental practitioners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A self-administered 30-items questionnaire was distributed to 438 dentists, which included eight questions related to background and demographic information and 22 questions related to the use of social media within the dental practice. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS software. Data analysis included frequency distributions and chi-square tests to assess the association of social media use with demographic and social variables and its impact on dental practice. Significant level was considered if p was less than 0.05. Results: Of participating, 338 dentists, 52% were using social media in their practice. Twitter was the most commonly used (35%). Education was the primary purpose of using social media (43%), while entertainment was the least (8%). Approximately 62% and 68% are using social media for marketing of their dental practice and broadcasting treatment outcome, respectively. Social media was observed to be used significantly higher among Non-Saudi, general and private dentists. Participating dentists who used social media in their practice significantly recommended using social media to other dentists. Conclusion: In general, non-Saudis, general practitioners and dentists practicing in private clinics are significantly using more social media during their practice. The majority of dental practitioners indicated that social media has improved their dental practice and become an indicator of successful practice. 02 28 2019 101 106 TODENTJ-13-101 1 10.2174/crossmark_policy opendentistryjournal.com benthamopen.com true Peer Reviewed Single blind Checked with iThenticate 2019-01-06 2019-02-01 2019-02-13 2019-02-28 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode 10.2174/1874210601913010101 1553507737 https://opendentistryjournal.com/VOLUME/13/PAGE/101/ https://opendentistryjournal.com/contents/volumes/V13/TODENTJ-13-101/TODENTJ-13-101.pdf https://opendentistryjournal.com/contents/volumes/V13/TODENTJ-13-101/TODENTJ-13-101.pdf https://opendentistryjournal.com/contents/volumes/V13/TODENTJ-13-101/TODENTJ-13-101.pdf https://opendentistryjournal.com/contents/volumes/V13/TODENTJ-13-101/TODENTJ-13-101.pdf https://opendentistryjournal.com/contents/volumes/V13/TODENTJ-13-101/TODENTJ-13-101.pdf https://opendentistryjournal.com/contents/volumes/V13/TODENTJ-13-101/TODENTJ-13-101.pdf https://opendentistryjournal.com/contents/volumes/V13/TODENTJ-13-101/TODENTJ-13-101.pdf https://opendentistryjournal.com/contents/volumes/V13/TODENTJ-13-101/TODENTJ-13-101.xml Safko J, Brake DK. 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