Gum Health Less Important Than Tooth Whitening - Google Searches
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- Published: Friday, 21 May 2021 10:35
- Written by Chris Tapper
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Although it’s a major concern for dental professionals, gum health may not be at the forefront of the public’s consciousness when they are looking for dental answers on the internet.
Much-publicised recent research that suggested good oral hygiene can reduce the severity of COVID-19 has now been followed by a new study that has now found a link between poor oral hygiene and markers for Alzheimer’s Disease.
The latest medical research has shown that an imbalance in favour of periodontally pathogenic bacteria has a direct relationship with early markers for amyloid found in the cerebrospinal fluid of people who are currently cognitively healthy.
With much dental research, oral health promotions and advertising being focussed on periodontal matters these days, US-based ExpressDentist.com has analysed the top most searched for internet questions on teeth, posed by the public.
Although ‘How to brush your teeth?’ was in the top five most searched queries globally, the most searched for answer was to the question ‘How to whiten teeth?’ with 563,000 searches recorded in the UK alone.
The study on search terms, carried out jointly by ExpressDentist.com and Ahrefs.com demonstrated that internet users were four times more interested in tooth-whitening than how to brush their teeth.
The findings also showed that the dentally-curious were marginally more interested in “How many teeth do dogs have?” than toothbrushing.
The ninth top dental internet query was “How to remove teeth from tartar from teeth without a dentist?” – a question that may reflect problems patients have had this past year accessing dental hygiene treatment during the pandemic.
Interestingly, “How to stop tooth-grinding?” was the tenth most globally searched-for dental answer – again a reflection of the increase in bruxism seen by dentists worldwide since the onset of COVID-19 and lockdowns.
GDPUK also looked at recent trends in ‘dental’ Google searches in the UK.
“Temporary filling” was a major search in May 2020 while the UK dental service was effectively shut down for routine treatment. Google showed there was a big reduction in searches for temporary filling materials by the midsummer, as dental services resumed to relative ‘normality.’
A search for “Scale and Polish” has shown a steady rise in hits since the end of the UK dental shutdown to a peak in early April. Some practices are still experiencing difficulties in providing routine dental hygiene appointments due to the pressures on surgery time as a result of having to adhere to fallow time restrictions.
Alarmingly, “Dental complaint” showed a large spike in August of 2020, reflecting the worries of many dental professionals who fear complaints from patients as a result of delays in treatment caused by the shutdown and restricted patient numbers.
“How to complain about a dentist” similarly brought worrying spikes in searches with peaks occurring in June, August and December 2020. “Dental solicitor” brought about many searches all year round.
“NHS dentist” showed a steady rise in searches since May 2020 to the present time, reflecting the reported lack of NHS availability in certain areas of the UK.
Interestingly, the public in the UK has shown a growing, but very steady increase in “Gum disease” between 2004 and now.
Similarly, interest in “Dental implants” on Google has almost trebled since 2004.
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