Content Analysis of #Brokeninstrumentmanagement Related Posts on Instagram: Cross-Sectional Research

Objective: To make a detailed content analysis of the management of broken instruments, which is an attractive and challenging topic on Instagram. Material and Methods: Instagram was searched using ''#brokenfile'', ''#brokeninstrument'' and ''brokenfileremoval''. After duplicates and unrelated posts were excluded, 818 posts were evaluated regarding the type of post, country, language, publication year, tooth number, location of the broken instrument, management method, presence of magnification, presence of follow-up, publisher, sharing purpose, number of likes, comments, and views. Videos were rated using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and Confidence Score (CS). Results: The majority of the posts were photographs (86.5%), written in English (65.5%), and shared in 2020-2021 (65.6%). The broken instruments were in mandibular molars (49.9%) and located in the apical part (40.5%) mainly. The removal of broken instruments was the preferred management strategy (83.3%). 37.6% of the selected posts reported the use of the dental operating microscope. Clinicians tend to share posts to demonstrate their experience. The GQS and CS values in the posts where the clinicians' experiences were shared were significantly higher compared to other sharing purposes (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between publisher types in terms of GQS, CS, and the number of visualizations of the videos (p>0.05). Conclusion: Instagram is a frequently used social media platform that allows the sharing of variable quality information and experiences about broken instrument management. Thus, the contents of shared posts are needed to be reliable and accurate since they may guide clinicians and patients.