Public interest in the use of antibiotics for dental pain: An infodemiology study

Resumo

Aims: to evaluate the public interest in queries toward antibiotics for dental pain. Google Trends™ was used to identify public interest.

Materials & Methods: a literature search was performed on the most searched antibiotics in Dentistry in Brazil. From that, the search terms used were Amoxicillin (AM), Phenoxymethylpenicillin (PMP), Clindamycin (CD), Azithromycin (AZ) and Metronidazole (MD) with the term "for toothache" associated. A time-series covered the last 240 weeks (from April 2015 to April 2020). The results of each term was compared with their respective annual value. Geographic regions were also evaluated.

Results: An upward trend for all antibiotics’ terms over the 5 years analyzed were observed, with a peak of greater interest in 2019. ‘AM’ was the most searched antibiotic for toothache, followed by ‘AZ’, ‘MD’, ‘CD’ and ‘PMP’. Annual relative search volume of "toothache" searches rose steadily from 2015 to 2020. Variations were observed between Brazilian geographic regions, and the Northeast Region presented the greatest interest in the topic.

Conclusion: Although there was a variation in annual and regional cycles,  an expressive and persistent increase in collective interest in the use of antibiotics related to toothache, mainly amoxicillin, was observed. Our findings provide insights for public health promotion programs.