Water fluoridation : A bibliometric study from 1950 to 2020

Abstract

AbstractWater fluoridation (WF) is considered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)to be one of the top ten public health achievements of the 20th century. However, discussions about WF have been ongoing. The purpose of this study is to collect and analyze the scientific literature for WF and understand the keyword network of the entire field, important articles, high-yield countries, institutions and authors, and the mutual cooperation between them. The data of this research are extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) from 1950 to 2020. In total, 1,008 articles were published. The United States published the largest number of papers. Australia’s University of Adelaide ranks first among the top 20 institutions. Seven scholars, including AJ Spencer, constitute the largest author collaboration network. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology had the most publications, with 107 articles. Keywords density map found that the main keywords were dental caries, fluoride, children, drinking water, prevalence, and dental fluorosis. Keywords clusters mainly related to dental caries, fluoride, epidemiology research, and dental fluorosis. In the highly cited literature, we found that the research also focused on the relationship between stopping WF and caries and the systemic effects of WF.