Internet search trends about dental caries and developmental enamel defects, 2004-2015

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the search trends of internet users for information on dental caries and enamel defects. Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study that used the Google Trends Search Application tool as a search tool. The descriptors "dental caries" and "enamel defects" were used to obtain information in the period of January 2004 and December 2015. The results were expressed by the Search Volume Index index. The Kruskal-Wallis test and the Dunn post-test were used, with a significance level of 5%, for data analysis. Results: for the term "dental caries", the highest search volumes were observed in the months of March, April and May (62.33 ± 14.73, 63.58 ± 13.19, 63.00 ± 13.24, respectively) and the lowest, in July, August and December (44.92 ± 8.82, 46.83 ± 9.94, 40.67 ± 5.55) (p <0.001). There were no differences in the volume of searches between months of the year for the term "enamel defects" (p = 0.694). In the analysis by year, significant differences were observed for dental caries (p <0.001), as of 2007 the search volume reduced significantly when compared to previous years. The same was not observed for enamel defects (p = 0.492). Conclusion: there was a tendency for a decrease in the number of searches for information on dental caries, while the search for enamel defects remains constant.