Does the general public have concerns with dental anesthetics?

BACKGROUND: Consumers and patients in the last two decades have increasingly turned to various internet search engines including Google for information. Google Trends records searches done using the Google search engine. Google Trends is free and provides data on search terms and related queries. One recent study found a large public interest in “dental anesthesia”. In this paper, we further explore this interest in “dental anesthesia” and assess if any patterns emerge. METHODS: In this study, Google Trends and the search term “dental pain” was used to record the consumer's interest over a five-year period. Additionally, using the search term “Dental anesthesia,” a top ten related query list was generated. Queries are grouped into two sections, a “top” category and a “rising” category. We then added additional search term such as: wisdom tooth anesthesia, wisdom tooth general anesthesia, dental anesthetics, local anesthetic, dental numbing, anesthesia dentist, and dental pain. From the related queries generated from each search term, repeated themes were grouped together and ranked according to the total sum of their relative search frequency (RSF) values. RESULTS: Over the five-year time period, Google Trends data show that there was a 1.5% increase in the search term “dental pain”. Results of the related queries for dental anesthesia show that there seems to be a large public interest in how long local anesthetics last (Total RSF = 231) – even more so than potential side effects or toxicities (Total RSF = 83). CONCLUSION: Based on these results it is recommended that clinicians clearly advice their patients on how long local anesthetics last to better manage patient expectations.