Oral Health and Teledentistry Interest during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has significantly changed access to dental treatments. METHODS: The data related to oral health and teledentistry topics were collected from the open database Google Trends. The analyzed material was collected from 19 June 2016 to 6 June 2021 among anonymous search engine users. The following expressions were analyzed "dental care", "emergency dental care", "oral health", "periodontitis", "teledentistry", "is it safe to go to the dentist", and "COVID-19" and "PPE dentist". RESULTS: During the first lockdown in 2020, a significant increase in "emergency dental care" phrase queries was detected, with a simultaneous decrease in regular "dental care" questions, as well as a peak in the queries for "periodontitis" preceded by lower interest in "oral health." The number of searches stated for "teledentistry" increased during the time of the pandemic 5 times and for and "PPE dentist" 30 times. The risk of visiting the dental studio was seen in almost 40 times increase in the query "is it safe to go to the dentist." CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 imprinted a stigma on oral health care. In this difficult epidemiological situation, teledentistry might become a helpful solution.