Communicating orthodontic research via social media

I n this article, I am going to share my personal viewpoint and knowledge on how to communicate orthodontic research via social media. This is based upon many years experience of involvement with computers and recently writing a surprisingly successful orthodontic blog. Like many people, I have used the Internet extensively in my work as an academic orthodontist, it is recently that I have become aware and made use of social media in obtaining and disseminating research knowledge. This article is, therefore, not based on any science; it is only my personal experience and other low levels of evidence. I am not going to reference any sources in this article because they are all available using an electronic search. This is an article about contemporary communication, which while having few restraints has great importance when considered in the realm of orthodontic communications. It is also difficult to write an article on social media because knowledge of this field is closely associated with age. This is because the younger generation of orthodontists will have grown up with the rapid developments in social media. As a result, I shall set this article at the level of someone who has minimal experience of this continuously changing area. Finally, I will only discuss platforms with which I have experience. I will start with Twitter.