Worldwide interest in silver diamine fluoride over the last decade: A longitudinal retrospective study

BACKGROUND an‎d AIM: Silver fluoride solutions have been used successfully over the past 40 years for the prevention and inhibition of dental caries, in both clinical and in vitro studies. This study was performed to investigate worldwide interest in silver diamine fluoride (SDF) over the last decade using Google Trends. METHODS: On January 6, 2020, the term ‘silver diamine fluoride’ was searched for on Google Trends and the relative search volume (RSV) was downloaded. This search was first performed worldwide, and then within the five most-searched countries, i.e., the United States of America (USA), Canada, Egypt, India, and the United Kingdom (UK), from January 2010 to December 2019. Data were subjected to multiple time-series analysis and Kruskal-Wallis test, and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecasting models were generated. RESULTS: The highest RSVs were obtained in the USA (100) and Canada (99). The monthly RSV values were significantly different among countries (P < 0.001). Multiple time-series analysis showed a marked increase in the number of searches including the term ‘silver diamine fluoride’ since 2014. CONCLUSION: There has been an increase in interest regarding SDF among Google users over the last decade. The increase started in 2014, with the highest number of searches for this term being conducted in the USA and Canada.