Social media may up anxiety before 3rd-molar surgery

Viewing social media content about surgical treatments before third-molar surgery may increase patients' perioperative anxiety, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Stress management strategies should consider the impact of demographic factors, social media types, and content on this anxiety, the authors wrote.

"For patients who view social media before surgery, additional methods may be needed to decrease their anxiety," wrote the authors, led by Dr. Ufuk Tatli, PhD, of the Marquette University School of Dentistry (J Oral Maxillofac Surg, November 21, 2024).

The clinical study included 162 adult patients who underwent impacted mandibular third-molar surgery between September 2021 and August 2022. To isolate the effects of variables, researchers included only patients who engaged with a single type of social media, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and one type of video, photo, or written content, they wrote.

Participants underwent clinical and radiographic examinations, and their anxiety levels were measured using the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) and the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S). The MDAS, composed of five questions, evaluates anxiety levels during various stages of dental treatment, with scores ranging from 1 (non-anxious) to 5 (extremely anxious). The STAI-S includes 20 items assessing patients' current anxiety levels on a four-point scale from "not at all" to "too much," they wrote.

Female patients had higher MDAS scores (11.43 ± 4.55) compared to males (9.47 ± 4.21). Patients with high school education in the social media group had significantly higher MDAS (12.08 ± 4.16) and STAI-S (47.37 ± 6.18) scores compared to the control group (9.93 ± 5.08 and 44.56 ± 5.54, respectively. Similarly, university-educated patients in the social media group had higher MDAS scores (11.58 ± 4.49) than their control counterparts (9.44 ± 2.88, p =0.02).

The type of social media and content significantly impacted anxiety. MDAS scores were highest among patients who viewed YouTube (14.29 ± 4.16) followed by Instagram (10.94 ± 3.91), Facebook (10.01 ± 4.18), and Twitter (8.09 ± 2.25), with significant differences between groups (p <0.001). Similarly, STAI-S scores were highest among YouTube viewers (48.35 ± 5.96), with significant differences compared to Twitter users (43.91 ± 4.11, p = 0.01), they wrote.

Furthermore, patients who viewed videos had the highest MDAS scores (13.32 ± 4.32) followed by photo (10.23 ± 4.17) and written content (8.09 ± 2.25), with significant differences among groups (p <0.001). A similar trend was observed for STAI-S scores, with video viewers showing higher anxiety (48.00 ± 5.90) than those viewing photos (44.77 ± 4.29, p = 0.03) or written content (43.91 ± 4.11, p = 0.01).

The study, however, had limitations. The study relied on self-reported anxiety measures, suggesting future research should include objective parameters like hemodynamic data or stress biomarkers for comparison, they wrote.

"Patients may be advised to avoid social media content before the surgery," Tatli and co-author Dr. Tahayasin Kalkan concluded.