A majority of YouTube videos on the topic of oral hygiene were rated as useful with moderate to high reliability, but videos uploaded by dental professionals consistently scored higher for quality and reliability compared with videos from laypersons or health professionals other than dentists. Researchers also found that highly subscribed channels often posted lower-quality content, suggesting that popularity metrics did not align with informational value.
In a cross-sectional, qualitative content analysis, researchers assessed 100 YouTube videos related to oral hygiene uploaded between February 2020 and February 2025. The videos were identified using Google Trends and YouTube searches for commonly queried terms, including "oral hygiene," "dental hygiene," "dental flossing," "interdental brushing," "brushing," "teeth brushing," "teeth cleaning," "mouthwash," "bad breath," and "oral health." The searches were performed in incognito mode without account logins to reduce personalization bias. The researchers included English- and Hindi-language videos relevant to India, and excluded promotional, animated, duplicate, and institutionally produced videos as well as those lacking audio or visual content or produced by professional dental associations or health societies.
Video quality was evaluated using the Global Quality Scale (GQS), and reliability was assessed with the Modified Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information (mDISCERN) tool. The researchers also examined engagement metrics such as viewing rate, interaction index, likes, views, and subscriber counts.
Overall, 76% of the videos met the threshold for useful educational quality on the GQS, and 73% met criteria for moderate-to-high reliability on the mDISCERN scale. Videos uploaded by dental professionals had the highest quality and reliability scores, with mean GQS and mDISCERN scores of 3.43 and 3.63, respectively. Videos uploaded by laypersons had substantially lower scores across both measures.
The researchers also identified differences related to video length and channel size. For instance, videos classified as useful had a median duration of more than 4 minutes compared with just over 2 minutes for videos categorized as not useful. In contrast, lower-quality videos were associated with substantially higher subscriber counts, with median subscriber totals exceeding 215,000 compared with roughly 49,000 among useful videos.
Engagement metrics did not consistently correlate with educational quality or reliability. The researchers noted that YouTube recommendation algorithms may amplify engagement-driven content regardless of informational accuracy, potentially increasing the visibility of incomplete or misleading videos with higher subscriber counts.
The study had several limitations. Engagement metrics were captured at a single time point even though YouTube activity changes continuously over time. The analysis was limited to English- and Hindi-language videos relevant to India, limiting generalizability to other regions and languages. In addition, all videos were evaluated by a single reviewer, preventing assessment of inter-rater reliability.
“Most YouTube oral hygiene videos exhibited moderate to excellent quality, with dental professionals producing the most reliable content,” wrote lead study author Sweta Singh, of Public Health Dentistry at the KM Shah Dental College and Hospital at Sumandeep Vidyapeeth Deemed to be University in India, and colleagues.
The study authors reported no conflicts of interest and no external funding.
