## 4 Discussion  
As the elderly population continues to grow rapidly [3], providing appropriate interventions that meet the biological and psychological needs of older adults to improve their oral health has become particularly important to society [1; 2]. Teledentistry allows patient care to be delivered remotely [32]; therefore, it has been suggested that its applications may be particularly suitable implements for overcoming biological and psychosocial problems in older people [2]. Specifically, teledentistry may enhance older patients' access to dental care, enable timely care management, and improve awareness and literacy regarding oral health and related care [2]. Currently, there is little literature on the use of teledentistry and its applications for the elderly population, and Internet search patterns can be very useful in understanding population behavior and interest in various health areas [25]. Therefore, the present cross-sectional study aimed to assess the level of interest in oral and dental needs and teledentistry applications among the elderly by analyzing Google search queries on these topics via Google Trends. The results showed that there was medium-high interest worldwide in the search term \"Elderly\" throughout the study period (from January 2004 to December 2022), while searches for \"Teledentistry\" were limited (Table 1). However, interest in teledentistry peaked in September 2004 and between January and September 2020, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (Figure 3). Interestingly, the latter peak coincided with the progressive spread of the first and further waves of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. It is fair to say that the fear of contagion and the limitations of social contacts increased public interest in the remote care delivery model. Furthermore, Internet users' interest in teledentistry applications among the elderly was primarily focused on \"Assistance\", \"Education\", and \"Diagnosis\" (Table 1), while searches for oral and dental needs were associated with lower relative search volumes. (Table 1), probably because of the major complexity of these terms, frequently used by specialists, with the greatest interest in \"Dentures\" and \"Tooth Extractions\". Upon analyzing the correlation between different relative search volumes, a significant positive correlation was observed between searches for \"Elderly\" and \"Teledentistry\". Similarly, searches for potential teledentistry applications, including \"Consult\", \"Diagnosis\", \"Monitoring\", \"Screening\", \"Assistance\", and \"Education\" were all strongly correlated with searches for \"Elderly\". This finding suggests that interest in teledentistry and its applications is strongly related to interest in the older population, which is consistent with the assumption that older adults represent the segment of the population that could benefit most from these tools [2]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Worldwide Relative Search Volumes**} \\
**36 Months before vs. 36 Months after the COVID-19 Outbreak** \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Teledentistry Applications**} & **Statistic** & **\(\boldsymbol{p}\)** \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Teledentistry} & 612.0 & 0.160 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Elderly} & 595.0 & 0.088 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Consult} & 310.0 & \(<\)0.001 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Diagnosis} & 386.5 & 0.003 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Monitoring} & 540.0 & 0.093 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Screening} & 331.0 & \(<\)0.001 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Assistance} & 92.5 & \(<\)0.001 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Education} & 583.0 & 0.466 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note. H\({}_{3}\)\(\blacktriangledown\)\(\blacktriangledown\)\(\blacktriangledown\)\(\blacktriangledown\)\(\blacktriangledown\)\(\blacktriangledown\).  
\end{table}