Human and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Analysis of Patient Experiences of Periodontal Graft Surgery
Adelaide Dental School, The University of Adelaide
How they used Delve
Dental researchers at the University of Adelaide used Delve to build a described codebook and double-code transcripts of 19 patient YouTube videos about periodontal graft surgery, using Delve's automated Krippendorff's Alpha to report intercoder reliability between the two coders.
“The generated codes were combined and uploaded to a cloud-based qualitative data analysis software (Delve Coding Software, New York, NY, USA). A codebook was created using the Delve Software platform (www.delvetool.com, accessed on 15 April 2024), featuring detailed descriptions for each individual code. [...] Krippendorff’s Alpha intercoder reliability score, which measures how consistently different authors are applying codes to the video transcript, was calculated for each video transcript using the automated function of the Delve software.”
- Field
- Dentistry and periodontics; patient experience of gingival graft surgery as communicated on social media
- Data
- Transcripts of 19 YouTube videos in which patients describe their gingival graft surgery experience, selected from 40 retrieved by the search term "gum surgery experience" (searches run signed out with watch history off), plus AI analysis of the videos' comment sections
- Approach
- Six-step coding process: in vivo open coding line by line, then axial coding to derive subcategories and relationships, then comparison and grouping for inductive content analysis following Vears and Gillam (2022); a codebook with detailed per-code descriptions was built in Delve, pilot-coded by two coders, and Krippendorff's Alpha computed per transcript with Delve's automated function (acceptance threshold 0.667). Human themes were then compared against themes generated independently by ChatGPT-4 and Gemini-1.5 Pro
- Data types
- Social media, Documents
Abstract
Background/Objectives: The prominent role the internet plays in being a source of dental information prompts qualitative evaluation of relevant online content. This study aimed to explore patients’ experience regarding periodontal graft surgery communicated through the social media platform YouTube. Methods: An initial YouTube search using the term “gum surgery experience” retrieved 40 videos. Graft surgery was the most frequently discussed procedure, and 19 relevant videos were included in the qualitative analysis. Video content was analysed using a combined human-centered and artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted approach. AI-supported analysis of viewer comments was conducted using ChatGPT-4 and Gemini-1.5 Pro. Themes generated by human and AI analyses were compared. Results: Nine key themes were identified from the 19 videos that satisfied selection criteria. Most themes were similar between human and AI analyses, with six overlapping and three unique. The most frequently coded theme was post-operative recovery (n = 177), with pain, work absence, eating difficulties, and disrupted oral hygiene commonly reported. Patient-clinician relationships were frequently highlighted, with mixed experiences regarding communication and trust. Positive experiences were reported more frequently than negative. Comment analysis revealed varied audience engagement and sentiments, emphasizing concerns about pain, recovery, and procedural anxiety. Conclusions: Key themes related to patient experiences were identified, notably concerns regarding post-operative recovery and patient-clinician relationships. Challenges in finding information prior to having surgeries motivated patients to provide support and advice on YouTube, emphasizing the need for patient-centered resources and effective patient-clinician communication. Integrating human and AI methods in qualitative analysis was efficient and insightful, with AI supplementing but not substituting human research.
Citation
William W. N. Mak, Timothy Budden, Sushil Kaur, Maurice J. Meade (2026). Human and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Analysis of Patient Experiences of Periodontal Graft Surgery. Dentistry Journal. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj14020127