Increased burden of cracked teeth in US and UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from an infodemiological analysis

Background: Preliminary evidence suggests that the rate of cracked teeth managed in endodontists’ practices has considerably increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic compared to the period before. Methods: We conducted an electronic search in Google Trends, using the search term “Cracked Teeth”, with the geographical area set to either “US” or “UK” and the search period comprised between July 2017 and July 2022. The weekly Google Trends score for “Cracked Teeth”, which mirrors the popularity of this search term in the countries, was downloaded into a Microsoft Excel file, and the difference in the volume Google searches for “Cracked Teeth” in both countries were compared between pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. Results: The median value of weekly Google Trends score for “Cracked Teeth” was found to be significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic both in the US (43 with interquartile range [IQR] 37-53 vs. 38 with IQR 32-45; +13% and p<0.001) and UK (28 with IQR 18-42 vs. 25 with IQR 17-33; +12% and p=0.001), compared to the homologous period before. Conclusion: The results of our infodemiological analysis provide a strong support to data earlier published, suggesting that the burden of cracked teeth may have significantly increased both in the US and UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.