When Popularity and Marketing Replace Evidence: Modern Dentistry in the Age of Social Media and Misinformation

Abstract

Technology and the digital era have radically changed not only dental clinical practice, but also the way we access, communicate, and interpret scientific information, with social media and artificial intelligence creating unprecedented opportunities for education and professional communication. However, access to information does not necessarily imply access to knowledge. In digital environments, scientific evidence increasingly competes with personal opinions, anecdotal experiences, commercial interests, and messages in which pseudo-information is disguised as evidence. This phenomenon is particularly concerning when popularity is confused with authority and clinical decisions begin to be influenced by fear rather than evidence. Endodontics represents a particularly relevant example. Historical controversies related to the focal infection theory and more recent claims linking endodontic treatment to systemic diseases demonstrate how scientific information can be taken out of context to influence public perception and, in some cases, favor certain commercial interests over clinical objectives. Similar situations may be used to discredit the decisions of other professionals, presenting the preservation of a tooth as biologically questionable and its extraction and replacement as safer options. When treatment alternatives become commercial competitors rather than complementary tools for restoring health, patients may ultimately face irreversible decisions driven by fear rather than informed clinical judgment. The future of our profession should not be determined by popularity, commercial interests, or fear, but by the best available evidence and by the patient’s health at the center of every clinical decision. This article analyzes, from a historical perspective, some of the elements that have brought us to this situation and invites reflection on our role and the strategies needed to begin reversing it.