This cross-sectional study was conducted in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia from September 2019 to October 2019. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Review Board at Riyadh Elm University. The IRB Approval number is ‘FIRP/2019/43/39/411’. The study population consisted of all the patients visiting the Riyadh Elm Dental College in the aforementioned period and agreed to participate. Patient who reported using internet to search dental clinics were included for the study.

The questionnaire was self administered and closed ended. The study proforma consisted of informed consent, demographic information and one question related to use of which social media they used to choose the dental clinic, followed by seven items on factors that are most important to him/her when looking at the account of his/her dentist on social networking sites and one item to assess their interest on type of content published by dentists. The four sources: theory, research, observation and expert opinion were utilised while drafting the items for this questionnaire [15]. Subjects were directed to a separate room where an instructor was present to clarify any doubts and given 10-15 minutes to fill the questionnaire and to return it back.

The questionnaire that was used was validated by two experts in the field. The questionnaire was first prepared in English and validated by the method of translation-retranslation. The final version of the questionnaire was in Arabic. After the content validation the reliability was assessed on 20 study subjects. Cronbach’s alpha and split-half reliability values were 0.796 and 0.81, respectively. Pilot study was conducted only to measure reliability and validity and its results and subjects were not included in the main study.

The data were entered into the MS Excel (MS Office version 2007 developed by Microsoft, Redmond, WA. Chi-square test was used to compare differences in social media effect and use between gender and age with cut-off point set at (0.05). The statistical package used was SPSS version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY).

Out of total 442 respondents, there were more females (n=275) than males (n=167) [Table/Fig-1]. For the use of different social media platforms in looking for dental clinics, by both the genders significant difference was found only to use instagram where 15.6% of females reported compared to males (1.2%) (p<0.05) [Table/Fig-2].

Comparison of distribution of searching for clinics by different age groups are shown in [Table/Fig-3], which showed use of social media like Facebook and Google by majority patients of above 40 years (n=164 and 36, respectively). Younger patients of age group 21-25 years preferred other sites like Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat rather than google (n=11, 15 and 11, respectively) for the same purpose, and these differences were statistically significant (p<0.05).

From [Table/Fig-4], it was observed that maximum patients (n=203) did not consider presence of social media as an important factor for choosing a dentist whereas they considered qualification of dentist important. If the dentist has a website then the quality of website and online reviews were considered important by maximum patients (n=279 and 241, respectively). Most of patients considered recommendations from friends\family as a very important factor (n=236). All these factors were found statiscally significant by using chi-square test of proportion.

The [Table/Fig-5] shows the type of content published by dentists on social media that males and females were interested in, that might affect their choice of dental clinic. Among males 54% and 28.9% females look for patient treatment photographs posted by dentist on social media. The next most looked content was advestisment for new products and treatments by both males and females (16% and 14%, respectively). Involvement of dentist in charities was also viewed by female patients (2%).

As of late, it has been accounted by many studies that online networking is assuming a key role in healthcare [16,17]. However, scarcely any study explored the relations between modern internet era and dentistry. In this investigation, the present authors were concerned about the variables that may give more enthusiasm to patients when utilising social media for dental practice and whether it would have any kind of effect as they would like to think in picking a dental practice.

Moreover, this study demonstrated that web based life locales have a significant job in improving the dentist patient relationship. It unveils fascinating bits of knowledge identified with frames of mind toward dental social media. It has been known in the literature that females utilise social media more than males [18]. Present study also shows similar findings that more female used internet to look for dental clinics than males. In an overview, conducted to explore how sexual orientation influences proceeded with goal to utilise long range informal communication locales, it was found that females are utilising online networking stages more than guys, because of their emotional behaviour (they like to keep close ties and add on the social data); while males will in general be propelled by aptitudes to increase general information [19]. This factor may disclose why females would in general be progressively keen on having a social media platorm for a choosing dentist, as compared to guys. Social media was in general conceivably powerful to draw in and get new patients [12]. It has been revealed that the position of dentists in social media was constrained in attracting patients to the dental practice [20]. Facilities and innovation of the dental practice was the most significant factor, since this innovation may assist dentist with providing the most recent and the most refreshed treatment, and screen their status or appointments [21]. While the relationship of social media and correspondence among patients and clinicians was the least significant factor in the present study as appeared in the results, the explanation may be that the both the dental specialists and patients remain careful to some degree to become friends with one another via web-based networking media. Findings of this survey were in accord with another study carried on by Australian doctors [20].

The present study showed that patients were more interested in viewing patients’ reviews followed by treatment photograps. This finding is consistent with another study that reported that recommendations are more trusted than advertisment and in yet another study it was reported that patients’ reviews are most likely to interest patients [22,23]. Although, the study by Nelson KL et al., stated that patients are more interested in information about the practitioner and the business information [24].

It is important for dental clinics to have online presence in order to sustain their business [25]. Others have stressed the importance of using social media in influencing the public. Moreover, consumers can be more loyal if they continuously find offers and content related to the specialty in social media [26]. Nowadays, every industry must use social media to promote itself including dentistry.

The limitations of this study include that it was only done in one city (Riyadh), the sample is relatively low compared to the population of Riyadh and that it was not randomly distributed to cover all areas of the city. The present authors recommend conducting more studies to investigate the effect of social media advertisememnt and participation of dentists on the public.

With the increasing trend of revoluntionary social media usage it is now essential for dentist to be marketing their practice at these platforms also to keep up with the futuristic trends. Further studies are needed to know the competence of dentist in handling these sites.