Is the Quality of Toothache-Related Information Published in Brazilian Websites Adequate to Assist People in Seeking Dental Treatment?

Infodemiology for oral health and disease: A scoping review

INTRODUCTION

Increasing affordability, accessibility and penetration of internet services worldwide, have substantially changed the ways of gathering health-related information. This has led to the origin of concept infodemiology that allows the information to be collected and analysed in near real time. Globally, oral diseases affect nearly 3.5 billion people; thus, volume and profile of oral health searches would help in understanding specific community dental needs and formulation of pertinent oral health strategies.

AIM

To review the published literature on infodemiological aspects of oral health and disease.

METHODOLOGY

This scoping review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Electronic search engines (Google Scholar) and databases (PubMed, Web of science, Scopus) were searched from 2002 onwards.

RESULTS

Thirty-eight articles were included in this review. The infodemiological studies for oral health and disease were mainly used in two domains. Out of 38 articles, 24 accessed the quality of available online information and 15 studied online oral health-related information seeking behaviour.

CONCLUSION

The most commonly searched oral diseases were toothache, oral cancer, dental caries, periodontal disease, oral maxillofacial surgical procedures and paediatric oral diseases. Most of the studies belonged to developed countries and Google was the most researched search engine.

Digital surveillance: The interests in toothache-related information after the outbreak of COVID-19

Objectives

The aim of this ecological study was to analyze the relationship of social restriction measures and people's interest in searching toothache‐related information on the Internet.

Materials and Methods

The following indicators Stringency Index (SI), Years Lived with Disability (YLDs) for untreated caries in permanent teeth, Google market share, Internet penetration, and relative search volume (RSV) for the Topic "Toothache" in Google Trends were determined for 21 countries with available data, from April 2018 to May 2020. Statistical analysis was performed using Mann–Whitney U test, t‐Student test, Pearson's Chi‐square test, and Spearman and Pearson's cross‐correlation tests (α = 0.05).

Results

Relative search volume values increased significantly after restriction measures in all countries, except for Japan. Higher RSV values were found among 11 countries that presented a cross‐correlation between RSV and SI with r≥│0.6│. The most common queries were linked to the treatment and self‐resolution of toothache, with a sudden increase of searches that combined the symptom with COVID‐19.

Conclusions

The interests in toothache‐related digital information were associated with social restriction measures. These results allow the identification of dental demands of distinct populations, contributing to the planning of specific public health policies during and after the pandemic period.