Evaluation of Internet users’ interest in paediatric dental problems during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Background The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had a significant impact on dental care providers; patients had trouble accessing routine dental care due to concerns about dentist and patient safety. People spent more time at home due to lockdown restrictions and a growth in individuals working from home. This increased the likelihood of looking for dental care information on the Internet. In the present study the aim was to compare the trends of Internet searches about paediatric dentistry before and after the pandemic. Methods The monthly variation in relative search volume (RSV) and the lists of paediatric dentistry-related queries were determined from December 2016 to December 2021 using Google Trends. Two separate datasets were obtained before and after the pandemic. One-way ANOVA was used to determine whether there was a significant difference in RSV scores between the first 2 years of COVID-19 and the first 3 years before COVID-19. T-tests were used for bivariate comparisons. Results There was a statistically significant increase in queries regarding dental emergencies, especially toothache (p 0.05). Conclusions More searches were carried out, related to dental emergencies, on the Internet during the pandemic. Moreover, non-aerosol generating procedures such as the Hall technique became increasingly popular according to the frequency of searches carried out.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Google Trends
• Paediatric dentistry