YouTube videos on gingival grafting procedures: Content and quality analysis.

Background: Periodontal surgery for gingival defects is widely recognized by dental care professionals and researchers for its effectiveness in treating gingival recession and improving oral health outcomes. YouTube (Google LLC) is 1 of the health information sources patients and clinicians use, and assessing its content quality is crucial. The authors aimed to examine the content and quality of YouTube videos on gingival graft procedures.

Methods: The online video streaming platform YouTube was searched using the key word gingival graft. Two independent examiners analyzed a total of 120 videos; a third examiner assessed interrater reliability. Fifty videos that met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The assessed content topics for these YouTube videos consisted of 13 different categories, and their overall quality was evaluated using the Video Information and Quality Index (VIQI). Statistical analyses were performed using SAS software, Version 9.4 (SAS Institute).

Results: There were 23 videos in the high-quality content groups and 27 videos in the low-quality content group. Hospitals and universities uploaded most of the included videos. The most commonly discussed topics in the included videos were the patient's condition (36 [72%]) and area of tissue graft (34 [68%]). The total VIQI score and flow had a significant impact on the overall content score (P < .05).

Conclusions: There was a direct correlation between total VIQI scores and total content scores and an inverse relationship between viewing rate and total content scores.

Practical implications: To ensure patients receive accurate and up-to-date information about treatment, the authors recommend guiding them toward reliable resources by means of providing direct links to trustworthy websites, creating and sharing playlists of reliable educational videos, and offering printed materials with quick-response codes linking to verified sources. These actions will help patients easily access and trust the information they need for their treatment decisions.