Worldwide Fluorosis Searches in Internet

Objectives: Fluoride has beneficial effects on teeth at low concentrations, but during tooth formation excessive exposure to fluoride in drinking-water, or in combination with exposure to fluoride from other sources, can give rise to dental fluorosis. Google Trends is an online search tool of Google Inc. that allows the user to see how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world. Google Trends also shows in which geographic regions people have searched the term most. The aim of this study was to investigate the ten years data on internet search volumes and the most common geographic search locations regarding “fluorosis”.
Methods: Worldwide web search trend data in “oral & dental care” category over a period of ten years (4 January 2004 and 18 April 2015) retrieved from the Google Trends web site and examined for the search term “fluorosis” to identify search trends and regional interests.
Worldwide web search trend data in “oral & dental care” category over a period of ten years (4 January 2004 and 18 April 2015) retrieved from the Google Trends web site and examined for the search term “fluorosis” to identify search trends and regional interests.
Results: The search volume of “fluorosis” showed slight changes during ten years. Colombia, Mexico, India, United States and United Kingdom were the most common regions for the “fluorosis” searches respectively. Guadalajara (Mexico), Bogota¡ (Colombia), Mexico City (Mexico), Santiago (Chile), Madrid (Spain) and London (United Kingdom) were the top cities which searched fluorosis.
Conclusions: Geographical distribution of internet search volumes about fluorosis would provide free, publically accessible online data that could supplement traditional methodologies.