What are people tweeting about mail-order aligner options?

This study investigated the language that TwitterTM (San Francisco, CA) users used in 2018 when talking about braces, orthodontists, or orthodontics and compared it to the language they used when talking about mail-order aligner options (MOAO). The content of 50,000 tweets containing one or more of eight keywords were collected on randomly selected days in 2018 to create a body of tweets pertaining to braces/orthodontics and a body of tweets pertaining to MOAO. These tweets were analyzed using two computerized natural language processing (NLP) methods. The results of these analyses showed that, in 2018, significantly more positive or neutral language was used in tweets about MOAO than tweets about braces/orthodontics. Significantly more negative language was used in tweets about braces/orthodontics compared to tweets about MOAO. This suggests that MOAOs are gaining a positive public perception online. The orthodontic profession should be aware of how they are perceived online and be proactive in managing their reputation and the patient experience.