Presentations

Abstract

Introduction: In the past, physicians primarily relied on websites to advertise their practice to patients. With social media platforms becoming a predominant method to engage with the public, physicians are provided another outlet to give knowledge to clients and promote their practices. The issue with social media is that anyone could masquerade as a plastic surgeon and provide misinformation if their account fits the algorithm TikTok has in place. This study aims to see how many accounts that appear under a search term are plastic surgeons and promote content that is in scope for their practice. We collected analytics from accounts on TikTok between 10,000-100,000 followers to exclude niche accounts and influencers, over two weeks from June 30th, 2024 to July 16th, 2024.

Methods: We queried TikTok with several search terms like "labiaplasty" and "mommy makeover" based on the most popular procedures from the 2023 American Society of Plastic Surgeons Procedures Statistics Release. We recorded number of likes, total videos, and follower count. The accounts were split into plastic surgeon, non-plastic surgeon, and unrelated. Plastic Surgeons and Non-Plastic Surgeons were verified by their board certification and any physicians outside the US were excluded. Statistical analysis was run with Jamovi for frequencies of search terms and account types associated with search terms.

Results: Three Hundred and Seventy accounts were included in the study. Breast Augmentation was the search term with the most accounts with 30 accounts, Butt Lift was the search term that had the most plastic surgeons associated with 4 out of 13 accounts. Only 22 were associated with plastic surgeons (5.9%). Rhinoplasty had the most videos, Cheek Fat Removal had the highest follower count, and Eyelid Surgery had the most total likes on average.

Conclusion: Plastic Surgery is a popular topic on TikTok with many accounts associated with the most popular procedures and the different search terms having various levels of interest and engagement. Only 5.9% of accounts are associated with board-certified plastic surgeons, suggesting that most accounts associated with plastic surgery terms are not qualified to represent plastic surgery, making this media type not preferred for viewers.