Social media and Dentistry: ethical and legal aspects
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ABSTRACT Introduction: In a saturated market with an over-supply of undergraduate and graduate programs, social media have become attractive means of advertising in Dentistry. However, posts frequently contain ethical violations and lead to service commodification, and their contents are often in disagreement with the Code of Consumer Protection. Objective: This article, which focuses on ethical and legal developments, contributes to the discussion and elucidation of questions associated with advertising that uses clinical images and photographs of patients in social media for commercial purposes and self-promotion. Conclusion: Social media and networks are valuable tools of dissemination and exchange of information because of their flexibility, democratic character and low cost. However, their abusive or misleading use, as well as the ethical and legal violations associated with the difficulty in controlling their use, may lead to serious damages and unfavorable court decisions.
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Social media can also be used in marketing and self-promotion.
“SM can also be used in marketing and self-promotion [190].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [190]
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- Authors
- Simplício, A. H. D. M.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Federal do Piauí (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Simplício, Alexandre Henrique de Melo
- Venue
- Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics
- Publisher
- FapUNIFESP (SciELO)
- Published
- 2019-12
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 80-89
- ISSN
- 2176-9451 (ISSN-L)
- 2177-6709
- PMC
- PMC6986183
- OpenAlex
- W3002752454
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 9 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 6.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Americanae (AECID Library) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Medical and Health Sciences Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
- Keywords
- social media, dentistry, professional advertising, dental ethics, legal issues, patient photographs, clinical photographs, consumer protection, self-promotion, misleading advertising
- MeSH terms
- Advertising, Dentistry, Humans, Social Media
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