Trends and seasonality in public interest in dental trauma: Insights from Google Trends

Aims To assess trends and seasonal variation of dental trauma by using the Google Trends data. Design Google Trends was used to obtain relative search volume (RSV) of search terms such as dental trauma, broken tooth, chipped tooth, knocked-out tooth, avulsed tooth, and gum trauma. The search strategy was set to the time period (January 2004 to December 2019), region (worldwide, the United States, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and Turkey), Web search, and all categories. Seasonal variation was evaluated using the cosinor analysis. Results The worldwide RSV values of broken tooth, chipped tooth, knocked-out tooth, and avulsed tooth have shown a general increase in recent years with an upward forecast line. The RSV values of dental trauma have shown a general increase in recent years with a plateau forecast line, and gum trauma has shown a stable trend with a plateau forecast line. Seasonal variation of chipped tooth, broken tooth, dental trauma, knocked-out tooth, avulsed tooth, and gum trauma was not found statistically significant in any of the countries (p > .025). The top related queries of chipped tooth and broken tooth were about pain, fix/repair, and cost. The top related topics for avulsed tooth and knocked-out tooth are about infant, child, toddler, and primary tooth. Conclusions People's interest on dental trauma, broken tooth, chipped tooth, knocked-out tooth, and avulsed tooth has shown a general increase in recent years without showing a seasonal pattern. Healthcare professionals should pay more attention to people's concerns and informational needs.

Journal

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRIC DENTISTRY

Year

2022

Volume

32

Issue

4

Pages

464-472

ISSN

0960-7439

eISSN

1365-263X

DOI

10.1111/ipd.12926

WoS UID

WOS:000723977800001