Analysis of the Academic and Professional Profiles of Dental Educators Promoting Courses at Instagram University

BACKGROUND: This study evaluated the current landscape of Brazilian dental education by analysing Instagram posts from professionals promoting dentistry courses. The objective was to ascertain the relationship between their qualification levels and digital visibility. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 480 publicly available Instagram posts, tagged with specific dentistry course-related hashtags, across 10 specialties with high numbers of registered professionals. Posts were screened for relevance, excluding non-educational or purely promotional content. RESULTS: The sample comprised 50 professionals per specialty, with a mean time since undergraduate graduation of 20.91 years. Orofacial Harmonization (HOF) emerged as a specialty with significantly less experienced professionals compared to Dental Prosthesis, Orthodontics, and Implantology. Similarly, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) demonstrated shorter time since graduation compared to Dental Prosthesis, Orthodontics, and Implantology. Radiology exhibited the highest proportion of specialists, while Periodontics, Prosthodontics, and Radiology showed the highest proportion of professors with a master's degree. Radiology and Paediatric Dentistry led in the proportion of PhD holders, indicating a stronger academic background. Conversely, HOF had the lowest proportion of professors across all academic levels (Specialist, Master, and PhD), notably being the only specialty without independent PhDs. Restorative Dentistry also showed lower academic qualifications. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the complex interplay of visibility, academic success, and digital presence in Brazilian dental education, which varies significantly across specialties. This complexity underscores the need for customized strategies for workforce development. While comprehensive, the study's limitations suggest future research should include longitudinal studies of career paths, qualitative analyses of specialty selection, and platform-specific engagement data to better understand this evolving healthcare environment.