Analysis of Korean YouTube Content and Comments on Dental Hygiene

Background: Korean YouTube videos on dental hygiene cover diverse topics and user reactions. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the overall trends in YouTube content related to dental hygiene and analyze users’ key interests and emotional responses. Methods: YouTube videos were searched using keywords for “Department of Dental Hygiene” (Chi-wi-saeng-hak-gwa and Chi-wi-saeng-gwa) and “Dental Hygienist” (Chi-gwa-wi-saeng-cha and Chi-wi-saeng-sa). The top 98 videos with the highest number of views were selected and categorized into main themes and sub-themes. Relevant comments were collected through crawling, refinement, and analysis. In total, 246 extracted words were visualized using a word cloud and sentiment analysis was conducted for comments on the top five themes. Results: Although not statistically significant, videos related to “Occupation” were the most frequent, whereas "Major” videos showed higher average views, comments, and likes. By sub-theme, daily vlogs such as “Daily life of professional” had the highest number of videos and comments; school introduction videos such as “Major introduction” had the highest number of views; and informational videos such as “Job hunting tips” had the highest number of likes. Frequently appearing comment words included “Dental clinic,” “Curious,” “Go for it” (Hwa-i-ting), “Study, “Help,” “Employment” and “Patient.” The sentiment analysis showed that neutral responses were the most prevalent in comments across all topics, although positive responses outnumbered negative responses. The topic with the highest positive sentiments was “Daily life of professional.” Conclusion: Users showed notable interest in dental hygiene majors and school life and responded most positively to everyday content.