Xin He

The expansion of China's early orthodontic market is increasingly driven by parental anxiety. This emotion can be deliberately created and used for profit in today's digital world. Social media has become a primary health information source for Chinese adults. A national survey reported that 71.9% obtain health education online (1). Yet misleading information is widespread on these platforms (2), and users often struggle to evaluate health content (3).Between 2018 and 2022, orthodontic related content on Chinese social media grew roughly fourfold. Orthodontics surpassed general dentistry as the fastest-growing oral health topic (4). Yet the quality of this information is deeply concerning. According to the same study, 79.4% of long-text dental posts were written by nonprofessionals. Using Spearman correlation analysis, the researchers found a significant negative correlation emerged between user engagement and content quality. On Weibo the correlation coefficient was -0.45 (P = 0.01). On WeChat it was -0.30 (P = 0.02). The most widely viewed content is often the least reliable (4). A separate analysis of paediatric orthodontic videos on TikTok confirmed this pattern. Orthodontist produced content scored significantly higher on reliability metrics with a P value below 0.01. Yet algorithm driven engagement consistently favoured lower-quality material. The most viewed videos offered limited guidance on treatment timing or indications (5).Importantly, the gap between parental concern and clinical necessity is not a new phenomenon. Early European studies found that parents' perceptions of their children's dentition often diverge from orthodontic expert assessments. Parental anxiety can exceed clinically indicated needs (6,7). These findings suggest that parental worry can operate independently of objective disease burden. In today's digital world, this vulnerability is amplified.Parental anxiety does not arise naturally. It is amplified within a digital environment where low-quality content receives the most attention. This trend risks undermining evidence-based care and may widen health inequalities.Malocclusion affects 45.50% of Chinese preschool children, a condition that without appropriate intervention can lead to severe dentofacial deformities (8). Paediatric malocclusion management is uniquely complex, shaped by individual craniofacial growth patterns (9). China has developed clinical consensus documents for early orthodontic intervention, including an expert consensus published in 2021 (10) and subsequent guidelines for specific conditions (11). However, a gap exists between these evidence-based recommendations and clinical practice. A recent analysis notes that some clinicians continue to perform excessive or premature interventions and exaggerate the role of early orthodontic treatment (12). This gap can create uncertainty for parents seeking guidance.Since the 2009 healthcare reforms, China's private dental sector has expanded to over 130,000 clinics nationwide, far outnumbering public facilities (13). While public hospitals, particularly tertiary stomatology hospitals, continue to handle a substantial proportion of patient volume, private clinics have come to dominate the direct-to-consumer marketing landscape. Facing intense competition and high customer acquisition costs (14), these clinics increasingly rely on social media platforms to attract patients. Recently, orthodontic topics have represented the fastest-growing category of oral health discussion, with a substantial proportion of high-engagement posts containing promotional material (4).Paediatric orthodontics, a high-margin service, has attracted considerable commercial attention in this digital space. Content often includes case demonstrations, warnings about risks of delayed treatment, and claims about optimal timing for intervention (4). Such promotional practices have contributed to misconceptions about early orthodontic care, including exaggerated claims and premature interventions (12).Unlike adult orthodontics, where treatment goals are relatively stable, paediatric intervention requires careful consideration of individual craniofacial growth patterns (9). Treatment decisions must balance the potential benefits of early intervention against the risks of unnecessary treatment. This complexity makes the specialty particularly vulnerable to inappropriate early intervention when commercial incentives override clinical judgment.A related concern is the potential blurring of professional boundaries in digital health communication. When clinicians use their institutional affiliations in commercial social media content, parents who trust the impartiality of public hospitals may find it hard to tell education from promotion. This issue has drawn regulatory attention, in part because hospital social media activity has grown substantially. A cross-sectional study of 721 officially verified hospital Weibo accounts found that promotional strategies significantly influence audience reach and engagement. The study identified hospital ownership, whether public or private, as a key factor shaping the effectiveness of social media promotional strategies (15). This suggests that public hospitals may face distinct challenges or incentives in managing their digital presence.The regulatory landscape has responded to these challenges. Since 2022, TikTok has prohibited medical professionals from engaging in live commerce. The Chinese National Health Commission has also announced strict monitoring of public hospital doctors' participation in pharmaceutical advertising and disguised medical promotions (16). Earlier position statements from professional associations noted the need to oppose excessive commercialization in dental practice (17).These patterns of commercial promotion raise questions about equity in paediatric dental care. Private clinics are predominantly concentrated in economically advanced urban areas (13). This means...

Lycopene (LY) is a major active natural product isolated from red fruits, which has been shown to have good antioxidant, antitumor, and antifibrosis activities. Previous studies have shown that LY has an antioral cancer effect, but its molecular mechanism of action is still unknown. Here, we found 56 interaction genes between LY and oral cancer using bioinformatic data analysis methods. The gene ontology (GO) and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis found that genes were enriched primarily in the positive regulation of cell proliferation and associated with sequence-specific DNA binding. These were mainly enriched in pathways in cancer, chemical carcinogenesis - receptor activation, proteoglycans in cancer, as well as other pathways. The protein with the highest degree in the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network is the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Our previous study found that aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) could negatively regulate EGFR expression in oral cancer. Consequently, we address for the first time the potential combinations of ALA-PDT and LY in the treatment of oral cancer. This treatment regimen could synergistically reduce the growth and induced apoptosis of CAL-27 cells in vitro and significantly down-regulate EGFR gene expression, meanwhile, suppress the growth of oral cancer xenograft in nude mice. The antioxidant capacity as measured in vivo by the ferric reducing ability plasma (FRAP) assay was also significantly higher in the combined intervention group than in the ALA-PDT or LY groups alone. Taken together, these findings reaffirm the role of LY with ALA-PDT as a putative combination treatment scheme through their direct killing effect on tumor cells and their capacity to suppress EGFR activity. Clinical trial number Not applicable.