## 3 Results
### Google Trends Relative Search Volumes for \"Elderly\" and \"Teledentistry\"
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Elderly RSV** & **Teledentistry RSV** & & & & & & \\ \hline \hline  & & & & **Oral needs and concerns RSV** & & & \\ \hline  & & **Tooth loss** & **Periodonitis** & **Tooth extraction** & **Dentures** & **Caries** & **Stomatitis** \\ \hline Pearson’s r & 0.214 ** & 0.017 & 0.508 *** & 0.207 ** & 0.234 *** & 0.580 *** & 0.505 *** \\ \hline \(p\)-value & 0.001 & 0.795 & \textless{}0.001 & 0.002 & \textless{}0.001 & \textless{}0.001 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline
95\% CI Upper & 0.335 & 0.147 & 0.599 & 0.328 & 0.353 & 0.660 & 0.596 \\ \hline
95\% CI Lower & 0.087 & \textless{}0.113 & 0.405 & 0.079 & 0.107 & 0.486 & 0.402 \\ \hline  & & & & & & & \\ \hline  & & **Consult** & **Diagnosis** & **Monitoring** & **Screening** & **Assistance** & **Education** \\ \hline Pearson’s r & 0.090 & 0.214 ** & 0.637 *** & 0.470 *** & 0.496 *** & 0.333 *** & 0.376 *** \\ \hline \(p\)-value & 0.175 & 0.001 & \textless{}0.001 & \textless{}0.001 & \textless{}0.001 & \textless{}0.001 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline
95\% CI Upper & 0.217 & 0.334 & 0.708 & 0.565 & 0.588 & 0.444 & 0.482 \\ \hline
95\% CI Lower & \textless{}0.040 & 0.087 & 0.552 & 0.362 & 0.392 & 0.213 & 0.259 \\ \hline  & & & & & & & \\ \end{tabular} Note. \({}^{*}p\) \(<\) 0.05, ** \(p\) \(<\) 0.01, *** \(p\) \(<\) 0.001.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Correlation between the worldwide relative search volumes for “Elderly”, “Teledentistry”, oral and dental needs, and teledentistry applications, computed through Pearson’s correlation test. the COVID-19 outbreak, except for Monitoring (mean RSV = 3.694 and median RSV = 4 before January 2020 vs. mean RSV = 3.861 and median RSV = 4 after January 2020). The lowest interest among Google users was for Teledentistry, Tooth loss, Stomatitis, and Screening, while the highest was for Dentures, Tooth extraction, Assistance, and Diagnosis, basically similar to the RSVs of the overall period. Statistically significant (\(p<0.001\)) differences were found in worldwide RSV for the elderly combined with Periodontitis, Tooth extraction, Dentures, and Caries when comparing searches for oral and dental needs in the elderly conducted 36 months before and after the COVID-19 outbreak (Table 4). Statistically significant (\(p<0.001\)) differences were also noticed in Consult, Screening, and Assistance worldwide RSVs, among the potential teledentistry applications, before and after January 2020 (Table 5). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Worldwide Relative Search Volumes**} \\
**36 Months before vs. 36 Months after the COVID-19 Outbreak** \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Oral Needs and Concerns**} & **Statistic** & \(p\) \\ \hline Teledentistry & 594.0 & 0.082 \\ \hline Elderly & 79.5 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline Tooth loss & 630.0 & 0.331 \\ \hline Periodontitis & 357.0 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline Tooth extraction & 144.5 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline Dentures & 273.0 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline Caries & 278.0 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline Stomatitis & 612.0 & 0.636 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note. H\({}_{\text{s}}\)\(\mu\)\(0\
eq\)\(\mu\)\(1\).  
\end{table} 
Table 4: Comparison of worldwide relative search volumes for oral needs and concerns between 36 months before and 36 months after the COVID-19 outbreak, computed through the Mann–Whitney U test.