Dental Challenges and the Needs of the Population during the Covid-19 Pandemic Period. Real-Time Surveillance Using Google Trends

Magdalena Sycinska-Dziarnowska and Iwona Paradowska-Stankiewicz
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Magdalena Sycinska-Dziarnowska: Individual Dental Practice, 70734 Szczecin, Poland
Iwona Paradowska-Stankiewicz: Department of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases and Surveillance, National Institute of Public Health—National Institute of Hygiene, 00791 Warsaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-11

Abstract: Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to changes in the dental needs of the population and new challenges concerning oral health care. Methods: The Google Trends tool was used to collect data on the Internet search interest. The investigated material was collected from 1 January 2020 to 23 August 2020. Search terms “toothache”, “dentist” and “stay at home” were retrieved for the whole world as well as for the US, the UK, Poland, Italy and Sweden. Results: During the lockdown, correlation analysis indicates the lowest public interest in the word “dentist” one week preceding the peak for “toothache”, followed by an increase in the word search for “dentist”. On 12 April, worldwide, the maximum of Google Trends Relative Search Volume (RSV) for “toothache” was observed. Conclusion: Decrease in “dentist” queries during lockdown followed by an increase in “toothache” search predicts greater dental needs in the post-pandemic period. The surveillance shows significant changes in queries for dental-related terms during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to prepare for future pandemic outbreaks teledentistry programs should be taken into consideration.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; dental treatment needs; oral health; toothache; oral cancer; oral epidemiology; oral prevention; teledentistry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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