Parental and provider perspectives on social media about ankyloglossia.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate and identify the concerns and opinions expressed in both parental and provider posts on social media about ankyloglossia. METHODS: In this study, posts on Twitter between 1/1/2008 and 12/31/2018 were collected using search terms and hashtags specific to pediatric ankyloglossia. The search terms included a primary phrase to indicate ankyloglossia along with a pediatric identifier. Tweets that met inclusion criteria were analyzed qualitatively via conventional content analysis. After all tweets were categorized, descriptive statistics were completed to determine frequency of each theme. RESULTS: In total, 5951 tweets were retrieved. Parents authored 982 (16.5%) of tweets, and 782 (13.1%) were by providers. The remaining 4187 tweets did not fit criteria for either the parent or provider groups. Amongst parents, the most common themes mentioned were feeding problems (309 tweets [32.4%]), followed by lip tie (215 [22.5%]), anxiety or emotion (207 [21.7%]), and maternal breastfeeding complications (127 [13.3%]). The number of tweets about ankyloglossia and frenotomy in 2018 had increased by 2395% since 2009. Amongst providers, 215 tweets were judged by the coders to provide an opinion on ankyloglossia, of which 94.4% had a pro-frenotomy sentiment. When a specialty was identified, tweets were most often by dentists (250 [31.9%]), followed by lactation consultants and International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) (157 [29.7%]) and non-otolaryngologist physicians (79 [10.1%]). Otolaryngologists accounted for 8.7% (68 tweets) of posts about ankyloglossia. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate the spectrum of opinions that exist among both parents and providers about ankyloglossia. This can aid in shared-decision making by enabling the counseling provider to guide recommendations based on medical evidence with the understanding that there is a large amount of non-scientific information and opinions disseminated that may be shaping decisions.