Exploratory investigation of patterns of forensic odontology interest

Forensic Odontology (FO) plays a critical role in human identification and legal investigations, yet global public interest and popularity in the field vary significantly across countries. Socioeconomic conditions, educational infrastructure, and linguistic accessibility shape engagement with FO, which can be measured through online search behavior.

This study aimed to assess global trends in public interest in FO by analyzing multilingual Google Trends (GT) data from 54 countries over a 20-year period, integrating both English and official-language search terms to improve regional coverage and reduce language bias.

A retrospective, search-based trend analysis spanning two decades was conducted using Google Trends to extract multilingual Relative Search Volume (RSV) data for two key English language terms "forensic odontology" and "forensic dentistry" and their verified official-language equivalents (e.g., forensische zahnmedizin, odontologia legal, odontologie medico-legale) between January 2004 and October 2024. Countries were classified according to their level of socioeconomic development (United Nations, 2022) into developed countries (Group I) and developing countries (Group II). Aggregated multilingual RSV data were analyzed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with Newey-West standard errors to account for temporal autocorrelation and to examine the difference in counts between Group I and II countries.

Global interest in FO remained generally low but stable over the 20-year period, with academic-seasonal patterns particularly evident in India and the United States, corresponding to university semesters and major forensic events. FO was more commonly searched than FD, but regional terminology preferences and linguistic differences influenced relative volumes. Additionally, the addition of official-language terms increases the search intensity in several countries. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with Newey-West standard errors indicated that Group I (developed) countries exhibited higher average multilingual RSVs than Group II (developing) countries (coef = -0.79, 95% CI: -0.99 to -0.58, p < 0.001), even after accounting for autocorrelation and temporal dependencies. The multilingual dataset improved representativeness but did not alter the overall directional trends observed in the English-only analysis. A heat map and time-series plots revealed consistent intra- and inter-country disparities, underscoring the influence of socioeconomic, educational, and linguistic factors on digital interest in FO.

By combining English and official-language search data, this study provides the first multilingual global mapping of digital interest in FO. The findings highlight persistent regional disparities influenced by socioeconomic and linguistic factors. Incorporating multilingual datasets and predictive analytics offers a more accurate framework for understanding public engagement with forensic sciences and guiding international educational and capacity-building strategies.