Evidence-Based Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Silver Diamine Fluoride Use in Dentistry

Abstract

Background. This bibliometric analysis is aimed at reviewing the research pattern on the use of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) in dentistry using various citation metrics. Methods. A well-curated search was conducted on Elsevier’s Scopus database for the relevant literature on SDF published between 1969 and 2021. Bibliographic information such as information related to citations, bibliographic data, abstracts, keywords, and other relevant information was extracted using different combinations of keywords (“silver diamine fluoride” OR “Silver Diamine Fluorides” OR “Diamine Fluoride” OR “Silver Fluoride”). Analysis and visualization of the selected documents and related data were performed using various tools and software including MS Excel, MS Access, Bibexcel, VOS viewer, Biblioshiny, and Gephi. VOS Viewer was utilized for the Graph Modeling Language (GML) to generate graphical representations of the data. Furthermore, network graphs were generated to assess the various associations between research themes, countries, organizations, authors, journals, and citations. Results. The initial search yielded 662 documents, of which 410 were chosen for analysis. 252 records were deemed irrelevant. The chosen records consisted of journal articles ( $n=351$ ), conference papers ( $n=14$ ), book chapters ( $n=1$ ), and review articles ( $n=44$ ). The results showed that there was an upward trend in the research on SDF, and a substantial increase was observed in the citation index after 2014. Researchers from the United States of America, Hong Kong, and Japan were the top contributors, with organizations and authors from the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Hong Kong, leading the way in citations and productivity. Conclusion. The bibliometric analysis provides valuable information regarding the total number of publications on SDF and their citation details. It also identifies the leading countries and organizations involved in the research on SDF and provides a comprehensive analysis of the research trends related to SDF.