Association of COVID-19-imposed lockdown and online searches for toothache in Iran

ObjectiveWe aimed to assess the adherence to transparency practices (data availability, code availability, statements of protocol registration and conflicts of interest and funding disclosures) and FAIRness (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) of shared data from open access COVID-19-related articles published in dental journals available from the Europe PubMed Central (PMC) database.MethodsWe searched and exported all COVID-19-related open-access articles from PubMed-indexed dental journals available in the Europe PMC database in 2020 and 2021. We detected transparency indicators with a validated and automated tool developed to extract the indicators from the downloaded articles. Basic journal- and article-related information was retrieved from the PMC database. Then, from those which had shared data, we assessed their accordance with FAIR data principles using the F-UJI online tool (f-uji.net).ResultsOf 650 available articles published in 59 dental journals, 74% provided conflicts of interest disclosure and 40% funding disclosure and 4% were preregistered. One study shared raw data (0.15%) and no study shared code. Transparent practices were more common in articles published in journals with higher impact factors, and in 2020 than in 2021. Adherence to the FAIR principles in the only paper that shared data was moderate.ConclusionWhile the majority of the papers had a COI disclosure, the prevalence of the other transparency practices was far from the acceptable level. A much stronger commitment to open science practices, particularly to preregistration, data and code sharing, is needed from all stakeholders.

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“…Hence finally, one paper had shared data (0.2%). This article was published in BMC Oral Health in 2021 [ 22 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transparency of COVID-19-Related Research in Dental Journals

Sofi‐Mahmudi

Raittio

2022

Front. Oral. Health

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“…The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on oral health and teledentistry subjects. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few studies [19,20] tracing the GT expressions connected with oral health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first noticeable outcome of the research was a large increase in emergency dental care questions asked during the spring lockdown in 2020 with a simultaneous decrease in regular dental care queries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral Health and Teledentistry Interest during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sycińska-Dziarnowska

Maglitto

Woźniak

et al. 2021

JCM

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has significantly changed access to dental treatments. Methods: The data related to oral health and teledentistry topics were collected from the open database Google Trends. The analyzed material was collected from 19 June 2016 to 6 June 2021 among anonymous search engine users. The following expressions were analyzed: “dental care”, “emergency dental care”, “oral health”, ”periodontitis”, “teledentistry”, “is it safe to go to the dentist”, and “COVID-19” and ”PPE dentist”. Results: During the first lockdown in 2020, a significant increase in “emergency dental care” phrase queries was detected, with a simultaneous decrease in regular “dental care” questions, as well as a peak in the queries for “periodontitis” preceded by lower interest in “oral health.” The number of searches stated for “teledentistry” increased during the time of the pandemic 5 times and for and “PPE dentist” 30 times. The risk of visiting the dental studio was seen in almost 40 times increase in the query “is it safe to go to the dentist.” Conclusions: The COVID-19 imprinted a stigma on oral health care. In this difficult epidemiological situation, teledentistry might become a helpful solution.

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“…Using the trends of Google search engine (Google Inc.; Mountain View, California USA), with around four billion users world-wide, two recent studies found a steep upward trend in online searches for dental problems and tele-dentistry. 13,14 Additionally, a fivefold increase in the number of searches for "tele-dentistry" and a 30-fold increase for "PPE https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X22001339 Published online by Cambridge University Press dentist" were recorded. Moreover, a 40-fold increase in the question "is it safe to go to the dentist" showed a high level of fear of going to the dentist.…”

Section: Dear Editormentioning

confidence: 99%