It’s often the first sign to a dental patient that something might be wrong in his or her mouth … bleeding gums. They may not know the term “periodontal disease,” but your patients certainly know about bleeding gums. 

So where in the United States are your patients searching online the most for “bleeding gums?” We went straight to Google to find out.

Google has become such a big part of our culture that it’s now a verb in many of our vocabularies. Hey, I know I’ve often said, “Hang on, let me Google that” as I pull out my iPhone. Your patients are no different.

For every search term out there, Google using a ranking system of 0-100 to see exactly how “hot” a search term is. According to Google, “The numbers on the graph reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They don't represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100. Each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, or 100. When we don't have enough data, 0 is shown.”
	 

Looking specifically at the search term “bleeding gums”

As a historical background, we examined data dating back to January of 2004. The biggest month for searches was August of 2013 when the term “bleeding gums” reached 100.

That high point coincided with an article in the 

 about how bleeding gums could be warning signs for pregnant women. The lowest month for “bleeding gums” searches was October 2004 when it plummeted to 50. Over the last 10 years, August has been the highest month on average (80.8) while May has the lowest (70.7).

So where are your patients searching for “bleeding gums?”

Of the 50 states and District of Columbia, the top 10 areas looking for information are…

Currently, the top five metro regions are…

Articles

The top 10 states and cities searching for information on 'bleeding gums'

On a Google Hangout, Anastasia Turchetta, RDH, tells us what she has learned in her research about oil pulling. 

Below are the basics she has found about how to go through the oil pulling process.

Step 3: Swish in your mouth for up to 20 minutes.

So there are the steps ... but does it work and does it provide health benefits? Anastasia answers those questions in the video below.

Interested in learning more about oral cancer detection?

modernhygienist.com-2014-03-01

The top 10 states and cities searching for information on 'bleeding gums'

What dental professionals need to know about the 'oil pulling' craze [VIDEO]