The image of dentists on online search website

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.5216/ree.v14i2.13936

The objective of this study was to analyze images provided by online search websites related to dentists. Four researchers performed a daily survey on seven large websites over the course of one month. The following keywords were used in the survey: cirurgião-dentista (dental surgeon), dentista (dentist), and odontólogo (odontologist). The images were analyzed using the image analysis method proposed by Joly, including  descriptive analysis. The results obtained after the researchers’ combined analyses yielded eleven categories: Routine (159=26.72%), Mood (104=17.47%), Restricted view (58=9.74%), Sadism/Brutality (57=9.57%), Unwholesomeness (47=7.89%), Fear (47=7.89%), Pain/Suffering (47=7.89%), Entertainment (37=6.21%), Erotism/Sexuality (28=4.70%), Mutilation (8=1.34%) and Narcissism (3=0,50%). Considering the 595 identified images, over half (66.55%) suggested a negative impression of the dentist or dentistry. In conclusion, the dentist’s profession disseminated in large search websites appears, among the non-conventional images of the profession, to have mostly  a negative predominance.