Social media and dentistry: some reflections on e-professionalism
Abstract
The proliferation of digital technology is impacting on the training and development of healthcare professionals. Research on the online behaviour of medical and pharmacy students indicates that social media poses a number of risks to the professional practice of healthcare professionals. General Dental Council guidelines on the use of social media also suggest that it has the potential to expose dental professionals to a variety of breaches of professional conduct. This paper explores the various ways social media can help, as well as hinder, the practice of dental professionalism. However, the lack of primary research on the social media behaviour of dental students and qualified dental practitioners alike acts as a barrier to increasing social media awareness within dentistry. The paper concludes by calling for more research-led discussion on the role social media plays in shaping our understanding of dental professionalism in the twenty-first century.
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Many health professionals and medical students engage with others on social media in an unprofessional and inappropriate way and have encountered problems with their online identities.
“Studies have found that many health professionals and medical students engage with others on SM in an unprofessional and inappropriate way and have encountered problems with their online identities (17, 18).”
From Identifying social media professionalism competencies in Vietnamese medical students: a modified Delphi method (2026) · cites this paper as [17]
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BackgroundDang, T. K. C., Yeh, B.-I., Park, Y. C., Hoang, B. B., Vinh, K., & Park, K. H. (2026) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1703842 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Studies have found that many health professionals and medical students engage with others on SM in an unprofessional and inappropriate way and have encountered problems with their online identities (17, 18).”
- Authors
- Neville, P., & Waylen, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Neville, P.
- Venue
- British Dental Journal
- Published
- 2015-04
- Volume
- 218
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 475-478
- ISSN
- 0007-0610 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-5373
- OpenAlex
- W2042295884
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 7.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- BDJ (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Dental Education, Practice, Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Keywords
- social media, dental professionalism, e-professionalism, dental students, dentists, professional conduct, online behavior
- MeSH terms
- Professionalism, Dentists, Ethics, Dental, Humans, Social Media
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