Objective: The study aimed to analyze the public interest in wisdom teeth-related search terms as well as regional and seasonal trends based on information from the Google search engine.
Methods: With the help of the online search query tool, Google Trends, the public interest in the primary search term "wisdom teeth" for the timeframe between January 1st, 2004 and September 31st, 2021 was analyzed. To do so, a country-specific search was conducted in English-speaking countries (the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia) in the northern and southern hemispheres. The extracted time series was examined for reliability, and a Cosinor analysis evaluated the statistical significance of seasonal interest peaks.
Results: The reliability of averaged time series data on the search term "wisdom teeth" was excellent in all examined countries. In all countries analyzed, "wisdom teeth removal" was one of the most common related search terms. Significant interest peaks for wisdom teeth-related search terms were found in Canada and the USA during summer (p < .001). In Canada and the USA, significant seasonal patterns with the highest interest during the summer months, could be displayed.
Conclusion: This phenomenon could be caused by increased wisdom teeth-related complaints induced by seasonal climate changes.
Keywords: google trends; oral surgery; third molar; time series analysis.