SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oral Health
Sec. Oral Health Promotion
This article is part of the Research TopicDental EducationView all 14 articles
Trained to care, Untrained to share: The integration of social media (#SoMe) education in dental specialty programs: A Scoping Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
- 2Associate professor of Orthodontics, Department of Preventive dentistry, gulf medical university,, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
- 3Alexandria University Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria, Egypt
- 4Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, United States
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ABSTRACT Background: Social media (SoMe) is increasingly used in dentistry for patient education, professional networking, and career development, yet formal curricula on its use and digital literacy remain limited in dental specialty programs. Aim: This scoping review the existing literature on SoMe use in dentistry and identify gaps in curricular implementation and policy development for curricular integration in dental specialty training. Methods: Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a systematic literature search of PubMed and Scopus for studies published between 2009 and 2024 were searched. Two reviewers identified 2,952 articles, of which 531 met inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and analyzed to identify publication trends, thematic areas, and key findings related to SoMe in dentistry. Results: Research output grew substantially (412%) between 2015-2024. YouTube was the most studied platform (41%), followed by X/Twitter (27%), Instagram (19%), and Facebook (13%). Research involving dental professionals (54%) emphasized continuing education and networking, while patient-focused studies (43%) addressed oral health promotion, misinformation, and treatment decision-making. Only 7% evaluated formal SoMe curricula. Reported challenges, privacy breaches (38%), unprofessional conduct (32%), and misinformation (29%), highlights the need for structured educational content during dental specialty training. Conclusion: SoMe changed the dynamics of clinical dental practice; however, concerns persist regarding digital literacy and professionalism. Evidence on the structured integration of SoMe into dental specialty curricula remains limited, highlighting the need for educational initiatives to promote ethical digital engagement and oral health communication.
Keywords: Social Media, dental education, e-professionalism, Digital Literacy, Ethics, curriculum development
Received: 06 Sep 2025; Accepted: 12 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Taymour, Khalifa, Abdelrahaman and Hassan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Noha Taymour
Ayman Raouf Khalifa
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