A Descriptive Study of the Regional and Time-Point Changes in the Filipinos' Internet Search for Tooth Decay and Toothache

Abstract

Background: The Philippines has one of the highest prevalence of untreated tooth decay (TD) in the world. Toothache (TA) is a common sequela of chronic and untreated TD. Google Trends (GT) offers an inexpensive and fast method of assessing search trend for these health conditions.

Objectives: This study aimed to characterize the regional and time-point variations in the Filipinos' internet searches for TD and TA.

Methods: A descriptive analysis of a search query done on Google Trends using the search terms TD and TA was done. The parameters were constrained to include only data from the Philippines, from November 2009 to November 2019, under the health category, and the web search database.

Results: The top three regions that had the highest searches for TA were MIMAROPA (100%), ARMM (100%), and Caraga (82%), while CAR (27%), Metro Manila (27%), and Ilocos Region had the highest search results for TD. From 2009 (19.85%) the searches for TA progressively increased until 2019 (92.61%), while the searches for TD remained comparable from 2009 (25.09%) to 2019 (25.98%).

Conclusion: The results of this study reveal regional and time-point differences in the Filipinos' search interests for TD and TA.