Evaluation of YouTube videos about smile design using the DISCERN tool and Journal of the American Medical Association benchmarks

Statement of problem. YouTube contains many videos on health-related topics. Smile Design is one that is frequently searched on YouTube. Whether YouTube can be considered useful for patients seeking information on smile design is unclear. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to assess and validate the features of the most popular YouTube videos on smile design. Material and methods. In September 2019, the keyword smile design was searched on YouTube in North America using a virtual private network (VPN). The top 100 videos in a constantly updated list were recorded. The DISCERN instrument (Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information) and the benchmarks established by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) were used to evaluate these 100 videos. A spreadsheet (Excel v2016; Microsoft Corp) was used to process statistical data, calculated as mean and frequency. Results. Of the 100 videos identified, some were excluded as duplicates (11), irrelevant (4), and not presented in English (7). No video met all the JAMA criteria. Adherence to authorship and currency principles was observed in each video, and those adhering to attribution and disclosure principles were categorized as good. The average DISCERN score for the 78 included videos was fair (39.6 points); all videos scored poor or fairdvery poor, good, or excellent scores were not found. Conclusions. The quality of information on YouTube videos relating to smile design was only fair. Patients should use smile design information found on YouTube with caution. When professionals upload a video to YouTube, they should use evaluation tools as a quality guide.

Automated summary

This study assessed the quality of YouTube videos on smile design and found that most videos only had fair ratings. Patients should use caution when using information on smile design found on YouTube. Professionals should use evaluation tools as a quality guide when uploading videos.