Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
BMC Medical Education, cilt.25, sa.1, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
Background: Social media has become an increasingly prevalent tool in health professions education, including dentistry. This study aimed to investigate dental students’ perceptions, attitudes, and professional approaches toward the use of social media in learning endodontics, with comparisons across academic years and gender. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to third-, fourth-, and fifth-year dental students at Marmara University during the 2024–2025 academic year. A total of 302 students completed a structured 18-item questionnaire that had been reviewed for content and face validity by field experts. The questionnaire assessed social media usage, engagement with endodontics-related content, students’ perceived educational and clinical benefits, and their ethical views on how dental professionals should behave on social media—particularly regarding patient confidentiality and professional boundaries. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and Fisher’s Exact tests (p < 0.05). Results: The majority of students (78.8%) followed endodontic content on platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. Nearly half (49.3%) perceived a contribution to professional development, and 37.7% reported a perceived influence on their clinical thinking or practices. Educational benefit perceptions increased with academic seniority (p < 0.001). While male students emphasized visual quality (p = 0.007), female students were more likely to support strict ethical boundaries (p = 0.043), especially those related to patient confidentiality and professional ethics. Following endodontic content was significantly associated with perceived clinical influence (p < 0.001), whereas students’ ethical attitudes were not significantly associated with their responses to misinformation (p = 0.463). Conclusions: The findings indicate that social media is widely used by dental students and is perceived to support clinical learning, especially among senior students. These results highlight the need for further research into students’ evaluation of online content and their professional attitudes in digital environments.