Feedback of Patients Regarding Orthodontic Treatment During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Twitter: a Qualitative Study

This study aimed to assess the feedback of patients regarding orthodontic treatment during the coronavirus pandemic of 2019 (COVID-19).

In this observational study, keywords related to orthodontic treatment along with either “corona” or “COVID” were searched in Twitter during a two-month period from 2 October 2020 to 12 October 2021. The retrieved tweets were categorized into five themes of pain, getting braces, limitations due to COVID-19, seeking information, and delayed treatment based on content, and were then manually categorized into three groups of positive, neutral, and negative tweets. Next, a coding system was designed by the software MAXQDA, and the tweets were coded. Data were analyzed by the analysis feature of MAXQDA.

Of a total of 424 tweets retrieved, 95 were excluded. The majority of the tweets were about limitations due to COVID-19 (n=156) and were negative (n=213). Also, the majority of the tweets were posted by female users (67.5%). The most common reason for the negative tweets of patients was delayed treatment (43.9%). Also, poor performance of orthodontic clinics and orthodontists with regard to informing and reassuring the patients about protective measures was another reason for the negative tweets of patients (12.5%).

Delayed treatment was the most common cause of patient dissatisfaction followed by poor awareness and reassurance of patients regarding adherence to the preventive measures and hygienic protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.