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Section Objective

What is a literature review, clearly stated research question, search terms, searching worksheets, boolean and / or.

The content in the Literature Review section defines the literature review purpose and process, explains using the PICO format to ask a clear research question, and demonstrates how to evaluate and modify search results to improve the accuracy of the retrieval.

A literature review seeks to identify, analyze and summarize the published research literature about a specific topic.  Literature reviews are assigned as course projects; included as the introductory part of master's and PhD theses; and are conducted before undertaking any new scientific research project.

The purpose of a literature review is to establish what is currently known about a specific topic and to evaluate the strength of the evidence upon which that knowledge is based. A review of a clinical topic may identify implications for clinical practice. Literature reviews also identify areas of a topic that need further research.

A systematic review is a literature review that follows a rigorous process to find all of the research conducted on a topic and then critically appraises the research methods of the highest quality reports. These reviews track and report their search and appraisal methods in addition to providing a summary of the knowledge established by the appraised research.

The UNC Writing Center provides a nice summary of what to consider when writing a literature review for a class assignment. The online book, Doing a literature review in health and social care : a practical guide (2010), is a good resource for more information on this topic.

Obviously, the quality of the search process will determine the quality of all literature reviews. Anyone undertaking a literature review on a new topic would benefit from meeting with a librarian to discuss search strategies. A consultaiton with a librarian is strongly recommended for anyone undertaking a systematic review.

Use the email form on our Ask a Librarian page to arrange a meeting with a librarian.

The first step to a successful literature review search is to state your research question as clearly as possible.

It is important to:

• be as specific as possible
• include all aspects of your question

Clinical and social science questions often have these aspects:

• P eople/population/problem
• I ntervention
• C omparisons (not always included)

If the PICO model does not fit your question, try to use other ways to help be sure to articulate all parts of your question. Perhaps asking yourself Who, What, Why, How will help.

Example Question:  Do electric toothbrushes work as well as or better than manual toothbrushes to remove plaque when used by children?

Note that this question fits the PICO model.

• Population: Children
• Intervention: Electric toothbrush
• Comparison: Manual toothbrush
• Outcome: Plaque removal

A literature review search is an iterative process. Your goal is to find all of the articles that are pertinent to your subject. Successful searching requires you to think about the complexity of language. You need to match the words you use in your search to the words used by article authors and database indexers. A thorough PubMed search must identify the author words likely to be in the title and abstract or the indexer's selected MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) Terms.

Start by doing a preliminary search using the words from the key parts of your research question.

Step #1: Initial Search

Enter the key concepts from your research question combined with the Boolean operator AND. PubMed does automatically combine your terms with AND. However, it can be easier to modify your search if you start by including the Boolean operators.

children AND electric toothbrush AND manual toothbrush AND plaque removal

The search retrieves a number of relevant article records, but probably not everything on the topic.

Step #2: Evaluate Results

Use the Summary drop down in the upper left hand corner of the results page to change the display to show all the Abstracts.

Review the results and move articles that are directly related to your topic to the Clipboard .

Go to the Clipboard to examine the language in the articles that are directly related to your topic.

• look for words in the titles and abstracts of these pertinent articles that differ from the words you used
• look for relevant MeSH terms in the list linked at the bottom of each article

The following two articles were selected from the search results and placed on the Clipboard.

Here are word differences to consider:

• Initial search used Children. MeSH Terms use Child.
• Initial search used Electric Toothbrush. Article titles use Battery-Powered, Powered. Related word from MeSH Terms is Electricity.
• Initial search used Manual Toothbrush. Article title uses Manual Toothbrushes. Related word from MeSH is Toothbrushing.
• Initial search used Plaque Removal. Article titles use this exact phrase. MeSH Terms use Dental Plaque combined with Therapy, Prevention, Control.

With this knowledge you can reformulate your search to expand your retrieval, adding synonyms for all concepts except for manual and plaque.

#3 Revise Search

Use the Boolean OR operator to group synonyms together and use parentheses around the OR groups so they will be searched properly. See the image below to review the difference between Boolean OR / Boolean AND.

Here is what the new search looks like:

(child OR children) AND (electric OR electricity OR battery OR power OR powered) AND manual AND (toothbrush OR toothbrushes OR toothbrushing) AND plaque AND (removal OR remove OR therapy OR prevention OR control)

• Search Worksheet Example: Manual vs. Electric Toothbrush
• Search Worksheet
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Oral Health Topics

The Oral Health Topics section on ADA.org is intended to provide dentists with clinically relevant, evidence-based science behind the issues that may affect their patients and their practice. Refer to the Oral Health Topics for current scientific reviews of subjects that relate to oral health, from amalgam separators and antibiotic prophylaxis to xerostomia and X-rays.

Featured oral health topics

Learn which oral analgesics  are used for the management of acute dental pain.

Understand Occupational Safety and Health Administration  (OSHA) safety standards.

Learn about special considerations for pregnant patients and pregnant dental personnel .

Efficacy information about whitening  treatments for extrinsic and intrinsic staining.

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Review Articles

Is pulpotomy an effective therapeutic option for the management of acute irreversible pulpitis in mature permanent teeth?

• Parthasarathy Madurantakam

Do orthodontic treatments using fixed appliances and clear aligner achieve comparable quality of occlusal contacts?

• Ra´ed Al-Dboush
• Eman Al-Zawawi
• Tarek El-Bialy

Does dental caries lead to stunting and wasting in children?

• Jessica Large
• Zoe Marshman

'Cold is gold'? The diagnostic accuracy of sensibility and vitality testing techniques

• Mohammed Adam

Titanium-base abutments may have similar long-term peri-implant effects as non-bonded one-piece abutments

• Kelvin I. Afrashtehfar
• Adrian Weber
• Samir Abou-Ayash

Is professionally applied fluoride effective in preventing or arresting caries in older adults?

• Asim Al-Ansari

Does pre-operative clindamycin administration during dental implant surgery reduce implant failure or post-surgical complications?

• Karthikeyan Subramani

Is there a difference among different bonded retainers in regard to survival rate?

• Samer Mheissen
• Loukia M. Spineli

Can teledentistry - in particular, photographs - be used to accurately diagnose caries and healthy teeth?

• Lauren Crowder

Is there an association between early childhood caries and iron deficiency anaemia?

• Daniela Hesse
• Clarissa C. Bonifácio

Does the use of cooled saline irrigation during third molar surgery affect post-operative morbidity?

• Siofra Murphy

Does prophylactic application of doxycycline at the implant-abutment interface improve clinical outcomes of dental implants?

• Ewen McColl

Down the canal or down the gullet - which form of ibuprofen is best for post-endo instrumentation pain?

• Yasmine Coll
• Alan Geddes

Does the use of miswak reduce plaque and gingivitis among adults?

• James Scott

Primary pulpotomies - what should we be using?

• Felicity Conway

Gold versus ceramic - which will last longer for posterior indirect restorations?

• William Holme

Which orthodontic retention protocol should I implement? A critical assessment of a randomised controlled trial

• Pauline A. J. Steegmans
• Davide Cavagnetto
• Reint A. Meursinge Reynders

Do additional high-fluoride interventions among low caries prevalence orthodontic cases using fixed appliances reduce caries incidence?

• Carlos Flores-Mir

How does the novel piezoelectric 11 Gracey Curette compare to Gracey Curette or piezoelectric scaler?

• Satish Kumar

Does primary trauma lead to developmental defects in permanent teeth?

• Rebecca Gibbison
• Rebecca Crozier

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DENH: Dental Hygiene

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What is a literature review?

A literature review is a summary of the content of sources on a particular topic.  The literature review has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.  The literature review is organized by topics and subtopics based on the sources similarities and contrasts.  You will be reading the sources and summarizing the information and then analyze the relationship of the articles.  You can use headings in your paper to organize the themes or subtopics that come out of your research.

Here is more information on writing a literature review.

• Writing a Literature Review from the Writing Center at UNC

Tips for research

• Picking a topic
• Search terms
• Paper format

Pick a topic that is interesting too you. Look in journals or dental websites for "hot" topics.

Pick a second topic in case you cannot find enough resources for your first topic.

List of topics

• Cleft Palette
• Silver fillings
• Oral cancer
• Patient compliance
• Dental fear
• Oral health and pregnancy
• Violence and abuse
• Fluoridation  

Make a list of words to use as your search terms from:

the subjects assigned to the article

the key words assigned to the article

related words that you find while reading articles

Primary sources will provide in depth research via a study or a trial.  Use the information in the abstract, introduction, and conclusion to locate relevant information.

Secondary sources will give you background information and facts about the topics related to your client case.

For more information about primary and secondary sources, click on the tab : Primary or Secondary sources on the left.

Use APA formatting for your papers.

1. 12 point times new roman font, 2. double spaced, 3. 1 inch margins on all sides, 4. title page that includes the name of the paper, your name, the school you attend, and the date written., 5. a reference page on its own page with the word references centered across the top, 6. page numbers are to be centered on each page at the bottom.  do not put a page number on the title page., 7. paper length: 7 - 10 pages., primary vs. secondary sources.

• Dental Hygiene Resources: EBM

These articles are original research on an experiment and they are usually found using these databases: Dentistry and Oral Science Source (EBSCO), PubMed, and PubMed Central.

Types of articles: evidence - based, studies: cohort, case control, c linical trials and randomized controlled trial (rct), clinical trial, format of article:, a structured article with the following pieces: abstract/introduction, methodology/materials/methods, results, conclusion/discussion . reference, resources to use: dentistry and oral sciences source (ebsco), pubmed, and pubmed central. , tips for finding primary sources in dentistry and oral sciences science, pubmed central,  and ebsco discovery service ., in the search box add the word trial or study to your topic., example: toothbrush study, example: toothbrush trial, tips for finding primary sources in pubmed, select: clinical trial and randomized controlled trial.

• Example of a primary source article This is a clinical trial.
• Another example of a primary source article This is a study using two groups.
• What are clinical trials and studies? Clinical research is medical research involving people. There are two types, observational studies and clinical trials.

These sources are usually summaries or reviews of articles on a specific topic. These sources are found using PubMed, Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source (EBSCO), PubMed Central, Cochrane Library and online magazines, books, and oral health websites.

Types of articles:, evidence-based secondary sources, literature review, review, systematic review, meta-analysis, clinical analysis or clinical guidelines   , not evidence – based, general article from a magazine or journal, information from books, information from recommended or reliable web sites: organization, health facility, corporation, pamphlet, newsletter or fact sheet, format for evidence-based sources, abstract/introduction, methods/methodology, results, conclusion/discussion, references.

Resources to use to find Evidence-Based Secondary Sources: PubMed, PubMed Central, Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source (EBSCO), ADA Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry

Sources that are not Evidence-Based 

There is not a standard format.

Resources to use to find secondary sources that are not Evidence-Based: Websites for organizations, health facility, corporation: PubMed Central, Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source (EBSCO), and online journals.

• Example of a literature review
• Example of a secondary source not EB
• Example of a systematic review
• DH Resources 2nd year A handout for Primary and Secondary Research Resources that provides a description, identifies types of sources, and shows where to find the resources.
• DH Resources 1st year A handout for Primary and Secondary Research Resources that provides a description, identifies types of sources, and shows where to find the resources.
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Dentistry Guide: Literature Reviews

• Getting Started
• Use the Library This link opens in a new window
• Search Smarter This link opens in a new window
• Define my Topic This link opens in a new window
• Search for Resources This link opens in a new window
• Evaluate What I Find This link opens in a new window
• Avoid Plagiarism This link opens in a new window
• Articles, Books & More
• Codes, Standards & Statistics
• Blogs & Feeds
• Measuring Research Impact This link opens in a new window
• Publishing Academic Research This link opens in a new window
• Resources for Working With Data
• Resources for Writing a Thesis
• EndNote JAMA
• Literature Reviews
• Finding Statistics
• Working in Groups
• Using Reference Materials

Writing the Literature Review (Part 1)

Writing the Literature Review (Part 2)

Writing a literature review

Your Liaison Librarian will be able to provide support and advice when you are doing your literature review, so make an appointment with your librarian when you start your research.

• Liaison Librarians
• Literature review template
• The Literature Review Library Guide

Literature review books @ JCU Library

Prospero - Register of health related systematic reviews

• PROSPERO PROSPERO is the only open access prospective register of systematic reviews with a health related outcome. Registration is web-based, completely free to use and open to all researchers planning to conduct a systematic review. more... less... PROSPERO was developed and is produced by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York, and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
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• Last Updated: Feb 13, 2024 11:09 AM
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Types and roles of reviews of the literature in dental education

Affiliations.

• 1 Hirsh Health Sciences Library, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
• 2 University Libraries, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA.
• 3 Spencer S. Eccles Health Science Library, University of Utah, Utah, USA.
• 4 Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
• PMID: 32115714
• DOI: 10.1002/jdd.12140

Systematic reviews have consistently grown in popularity and reputation. On behalf of the Dental Caucus of the Medical Library Association and with insight from the Director of Faculty Education & Instructional Development at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, we offer guidance on the wide variety of reviews of the literature available to aid researchers in dental education in selecting the best review to suit their question, team size, time, and needs of the profession.

© 2020 American Dental Education Association.

Publication types

• Education, Dental*
• Faculty, Dental*
• Systematic Reviews as Topic

Writing Tips

Literature reviews, literature reviews and evidence-based practice, research assistance.

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• 5 Main Types of Writing Characteristics and focus of informative, persuasive, process, and literary writing.

What is a Literature Review?

The literature review provides your audience with relevant information about your topic, as well as your synthesis and evaluation of the article.  It is not just a summary of the article.  It is not possible to provide all of the information on a topic with three or five articles. As you locate articles, determine those that are the most relevant and that give you the most information.

Choose a minimum of three articles . Before you begin, locate other literature reviews in your discipline.

There are several steps in writing a literature review:

• Choose a research area. For this assignment, you may choose any current topic in dental hygiene. 
• Identify sources of information. This literature review will be limited to  peer-reviewed research articles from journals only.  Articles must have been published  during the last five years . A list of search tools are provided under the Find Research tab.  
• Record citation information for your report and bibliography as you research. See citation help tab for more information.
• Locate, read and evaluate potential articles. Take notes on your articles, and identify patterns as well as agreements or disagreements among the authors. The guides listed below contain excellent questions to consider as you read and evaluate each article.
• Write your review, including  your own synthesis and evaluation  of the articles you selected.  Provide a citation and a summary  for each article.
• Literature Reviews Explains what literature reviews are and offers insight into the form and construction of literature reviews in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, by the Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill
• The Literature Review: A Few Tips Compiled by the Writing Center at the University of Toronto
• Writing a Literature Review By the Center for Writing and Speaking at Agnes Scott College

Content above reused from  https://kwlibguides.lonestar.edu/dh-ebp/dh-lit-review , with permission of creator Hope LeJeune.

Image credit: Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. (2003).  Evidence Based Resource Models.   Retrieved  February 13, 2019 from  https://www.slideshare.net/anandmscn/evidence-based-practice-strategies-to-nursing-practiv  [Slide 26].

Literature reviews are important sources of information in evidence-based practice. The example article provided is also an example of a specific type of literature review - the  systematic review .  Systematic reviews are valuable in evidence-based practice because they:

• are designed with a clear set of stated objectives
• are comprehensive for a well-defined area of study 
• evaluate and synthesize the quality and findings of the studies included. 

Most search tools provide a search filter to make it easy to locate systematic reviews on your topic. This is a useful filter that can provide you with high quality information very quickly. To learn more about how systematic reviews are developed, see " How to conduct a systematic or evidence-based literature review  ."

You are not required to conduct a systematic review for this assignment;  however, you might want to consider including a systematic review as part of your literature review, if you can find one that fits the criteria and search requirements of your assignment.

Locating literature reviews, in general, and systematic reviews, in particular, is both a time-saver and a method of finding critical evaluations of research.

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Have more questions or suggestions for this research guide?  Please contact Jan Daniel , your resource librarian.

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DEN495 Dental Hygiene Capstone: Literature Review

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What is a literature review?

"A literature review is a text of a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge including substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. Literature reviews use secondary sources, and do not report new or original experimental work."

• Source: Wikipedia

Writing the Literature Review

Samples of Literature Reviews

• Sample Literature Review This sample paper was adapted by the Writing Center from Key, K.L., Rich, C., DeCristofaro, C., Collins, S. (2010). Use of Propofol and emergence agitation in children: A literature review. AANA Journal, 78(6).
• Sample Literature Review For Nursing Students From Illinois Eastern Community Colleges.
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Dentistry Literature Reviews Samples For Students

25 samples of this type

Do you feel the need to examine some previously written Literature Reviews on Dentistry before you get down to writing an own piece? In this open-access database of Dentistry Literature Review examples, you are provided with a fascinating opportunity to examine meaningful topics, content structuring techniques, text flow, formatting styles, and other academically acclaimed writing practices. Implementing them while composing your own Dentistry Literature Review will surely allow you to finalize the piece faster.

Presenting superb samples isn't the only way our free essays service can aid students in their writing efforts – our authors can also create from point zero a fully customized Literature Review on Dentistry that would make a solid foundation for your own academic work.

Free Based On Current Evidence How Often Should Oral Cancer Patient Visit Their Dental Literature Review Example

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Literature Review On Oral Health Behavior Among Dental Students

The relation between american board of orthodontics' literature review examples, discrepancy index and treatment time.

Introduction During the past many decades, considerable efforts have been made to develop reliable and standardized measurement tools in orthodontics. Quantitative indices like the peer assessment rating (PAR) and the objective grading system (OGS) have been successfully used so far to assess outcomes of an orthodontic treatment, but these are limited to occlusal aspects only (Cangialosi, 2004).

Impressions From Six Stories Literature Review Sample

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{Author Name [first-name middle-name-initials last-name]} {Institution Affiliation [name of Author’s institute]}

Gender Segregation And Its Impact On The Employment Practices Of Doctors And Nurses: Literature Review You Might Want To Emulate

The fish: a literary criticism literature reviews examples.

“The Fish” talks about the interesting journey of the narrator who at first was just out to catch a fish, but ended up developing a deep understanding of nature and life through the fish. With the use of vivid imagery and abundant description, Elizabeth Bishop took the readers to the past struggles of the fish in order to stay alive, how its physical disfigurement reflecting those struggles translated into images of beauty and victory, and how these mental pictures elicited respect and admiration from the narrator.

True to its title, the narrator begins telling the story by talking about catching a fish.

Good example of the association between diabetes and oral health amongst people from different backgrounds literature review, dna use in mass disasters literature reviews examples, good the effect of nutria in louisiana literature review example, the threat to marshland habitat and wildlife.

INTRODUCTION - Introduced in Louisiana over 100 years ago. - Native of South America - Introduced for fur farming in 1900. - Populations out of control for past 30 years in Louisiana marsh wetlands.(Daily Herald, 2009, p.1; U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 2013)

INTRODUCTION (CONT.)

Lip shapes classification literature review sample, literature review on magical transformations in alice in wonderland.

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Is Pediatric Dentistry a Topic of Interest for Pediatric Journals? A Scoping Review

Maria grazia cagetti.

1 Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy; [email protected] (M.G.C.); ti.ecila@oiricaivlis (S.C.); [email protected] (N.C.); [email protected] (C.S.); [email protected] (G.M.T.)

Araxi Balian

Silvia cirio, nicole camoni, claudia salerno, gianluca martino tartaglia.

2 UOC Maxillo-Facial Surgery and Dentistry Fondazione IRCCS Cà Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, 20100 Milan, Italy

Associated Data

Data are available upon request. Please contact the corresponding author.

Background: Pediatric dentistry shares many skills with pediatrics. This review evaluates the amount of literature on pediatric dentistry in the first 30 pediatric journals classified by the Web of Science in 2019. The aim was to perform a quantitative analysis of the main dental topics addressed. Methods: A scoping review with the PRISMA-ScR criteria was performed. The Clarivate Analytics Journal Citation Report was consulted for journals ranked in the category “Pediatrics” in 2019. Papers were searched in PubMed using an ad hoc prepared string. Results: A total of 504 papers were included. Papers on dental hard tissues were the most prevalent (45.6%), followed by dental public health (23.2%), orofacial development (15.3%), soft tissues related conditions (12.3%), and orofacial trauma (3.6%). Increasing trends have been observed for total papers published (R 2 = 0.9822) and total dental papers (R 2 = 0.8862), with no statistically significant differences (χ 2 (6) = 0.051 p > 0.05). The majority of papers ( n = 292, 57.9%) were cited between 1 and 10 times, whilst less than 7% of papers received more than 40 citations. Discussion: It is desirable that papers on pediatric dentistry increase in the pediatric scenario, allowing the two related disciplines to intertwine more in the future.

1. Introduction

“Pediatrics”, according to PubMed, is a medical specialty concerned with maintaining health and providing medical care to children from birth to adolescence. Oral health is an essential part of overall health and wellbeing. Good oral health needs not only sound teeth and periodontium, but also the wellbeing of all structures of the mouth, jaw, oral, and peri-oral tissues. Most oral health conditions are largely preventable in children and can be treated in their early stages. Caries represent one of the most common non-communicable diseases [ 1 ] and the most prevalent among oral diseases in childhood, despite being easily prevented [ 2 , 3 ]. Factors contributing to oral diseases are an unhealthy diet (rich in fermentable sugars), inadequate oral hygiene, and low fluoride exposure [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].

The prevalence of untreated dental caries is high worldwide. Data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015 show that 3.5 billion people live with dental health-related issues globally [ 1 , 7 ]. Nevertheless, essential oral care is still not provided to many children, especially in low and middle-income countries [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. According to WHO, treatment for oral health conditions is expensive and usually not part of universal health coverage; in most high-income countries, dental treatment averages 5% of total health expenditure and 20% of out-of-pocket health expenditure [ 4 ]. In addition to caries, it is very common that hard dental tissues have developmental defects of enamel (DDE) and dentine, which can affect both primary and permanent dentitions [ 12 ]. The ameloblasts, the cells that produce enamel, are very sensitive to any local/systemic alteration, even if it lasts a few days [ 13 , 14 ]. Common DDE are qualitative enamel alterations like Molar Incisor Hypomineralization (MIH), affecting 13–14% of children worldwide [ 15 , 16 ]. Dental traumas are also a frequent childhood experience; the prevalence occurs from 6.1% to 62.1% in toddlers and pre-school children [ 17 ], and from 5.3% to 21.0% in schoolchildren [ 18 ]. Regarding periodontium diseases, plaque-induced gingivitis has been reported in the majority of samples of adolescents screened worldwide, with a prevalence of about 30%. Gingival inflammation is a well-documented disease in children and adolescents, especially with poor oral hygiene and those affected by systemic pathologies like diabetes or leukemia [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Untreated gingivitis, later in life, is highly connected to periodontitis development and tooth loss [ 22 , 23 ]. Teeth and jaws are the keys of the occlusion, and malocclusion conditions are well spread in all ethnic groups [ 24 ], with between 57% and 59% of the population need some degree of orthodontic treatment [ 25 ]. Many studies have shown an association between malocclusion and worse oral health-related quality of life in children and adolescents [ 26 ], due to the functional and social importance of the oral cavity. It appears evident that reaching adequate oral health is a global challenge that can’t be achieved by dental professionals alone [ 8 , 27 , 28 ].

Dentists are the specialists of oral health. In the majority of countries, they are enrolled in a separate faculty from medical students. During the past decades, dentistry developed in many hyper specialties, and pediatric dentistry is one of them. Anyway, this evolution leads to an estrangement of highly related branches of medicine like pediatric dentistry and pediatrics [ 28 , 29 ]. These specializations should share common knowledge to reach comprehensive treatments for children, but this is often unreal, due to their impressive detachment. This separation, which starts from university, develops in different paths of post-degree courses and updates. Nowadays, most practitioners commonly use online databases, such as PubMed and official flagship journals of the main scientific organizations, to find information that would increase their competencies in everyday practice [ 30 ]. Insufficient knowledge of pediatric personnel (pediatrics, midwives, and pediatric nurses) on the preventive and mini-invasive dental/oral treatments have been reported to lead to a late referral to the pediatric dentist. An overall higher biological and economic cost for public health institutions and families was also reported [ 31 ]. This could also be the consequence of a lack of sufficient production of papers on dental topics in dedicated journals, but no evidence is available so far on this issue.

The scoping review evaluates the amount of literature published on pediatric dentistry in the first 30 pediatric journals classified by the Web of Science (WOS) in 2019. In addition, a quantitative analysis of the main dental topics addressed over time will be presented.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. protocol.

A scoping review was designed and performed to investigate the literature addressing dental topics published in pediatric journals. The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines ( Table S1 PRISMA-ScR Checklist ) [ 32 ].

2.2. Eligibility Criteria

The inclusion criteria were:

• Type of study: Review/meta-analysis, guidelines/consensus paper, interventional studies, observational studies, case report/case series;
• Publication languages: No languages restriction applied;
• Time of publication: No time restriction applied;
• Topics: Any papers regarding pediatric dentistry issues as the primary or not primary outcome, including diseases of hard and soft oral tissues, orofacial trauma, orofacial development, dental public health;
• Outcomes considered: Number of papers, types of studies, topic addressed, number of citations.

2.3. Information Sources and Search Strategy

The Clarivate Analytics Journal Citation Report (JCR) was consulted in April 2021 (S.C.) to retrieve journals ranked in the category “Pediatrics” in 2019, which was the last year JCR had been released at that time. The top 30 journals with the highest impact factor score and indexed in Medline were selected.

Papers were searched in Medline electronic database via PubMed from the inception until 31 May 2021, using the following search string:

(“dental”[Title/Abstract] OR “dental caries”[Title/Abstract] OR “enamel defects”[Title/Abstract] OR “oral mucosal pathology”[Title/Abstract] OR “oral mucosal lesions”[Title/Abstract] OR “gingivitis”[Title/Abstract] OR “stomatitis”[Title/Abstract] OR “orthodontic “[Title/Abstract] OR “jaw development”[Title/Abstract] OR “jaw growth”[Title/Abstract] OR “oral anomalies”[Title/Abstract] OR “facial anomalies”[Title/Abstract] OR “malocclusion “[Title/Abstract] OR “dental trauma”[Title/Abstract] OR “oral trauma”[Title/Abstract] OR “oral injuries”[Title/Abstract] OR “maxillary trauma”[Title/Abstract] OR “jaw trauma”[Title/Abstract]) AND (“ journal title ”[Journal]). In case a journal has changed its name over time, the search string with the previous journal titles has been also searched ( Table 1 ).

Bibliometric characteristics of the included pediatric journals and PubMed research results at May 2021.

2.4. Study Selection

The output of the references searched was uploaded into Excel TM software 16.16 (Microsoft, Redmond, DC, USA). Four authors (A.B., S.C., C.S., and N.C.) independently examined all the abstracts to establish whether each paper should or should not be included in the scoping review. Disagreements were resolved through discussion in doubtful cases. Where resolution was not possible, another author was consulted (M.G.C.).

2.5. Charting the Data

A structured template for charting the data was designed (G.M.T.). The data extraction form was realized without masking the name of the journal, title, and authors.

The data extraction form contains and summarizes the main characteristics of each paper: journal title, journal impact factor, total journal citations, paper title, authors, publication year, PubMed Uniform Resource Locator, country, area, topic, type of study, oral health primary outcome, number of citations.

Dental topics were grouped into five areas as follows:

• Hard tissues: caries prevention, caries treatment, caries epidemiology, developmental defects of enamel (DDE) and dentine;
• Soft tissues: oral aphthae, oral infections, gingivitis, and other soft tissues disease;
• Orofacial trauma: dental trauma, jaws trauma, combined trauma (dental and/or jaws and/or soft tissues), suspected abuse;
• Orofacial development: orofacial anomalies in syndromic and not-syndromic patients;
• Dental Public Health: health insurance, health services, pediatrician’s role.

Moreover, papers were divided into two categories, those with oral health as the primary outcome, and those including an oral health issue within other outcomes.

Finally, an author (C.S.) checked every extraction for accuracy and completeness.

2.6. Collating, Summarizing, and Analyzing Data

Data extracted from the studies were exported to an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Office 365 ® , Redmond, WA, USA). Included studies were not subjected to critical appraisal, since the objective of the review was to evaluate the amount of literature published on pediatric dentistry in pediatric journals.

Descriptive analysis was performed using the same software, and trends estimations of the number of papers across time were calculated. A chi-square test was performed for multiple comparisons between the total number of papers and those regarding dental topics over time.

Caries prevalence data from the Global Health Data Exchange tool [ 33 ] were recorded and compared to the number of papers published on caries issues.

A total of 640 papers were identified by PubMed search. Then, 136 were excluded following the title and abstract screening ( Table S2 ), leaving 504 papers for consideration ( Table S3 ). Figure 1 shows the PRISMA flow diagram of the selection process and the classification process by area of the included papers.

PRISMA flow diagram.

3.1. Journals: Features and Relevance

Twelve of the top 30 journals ranked in JCR in 2019 had changed their name over time: Fifty journal titles were identified from 1940 to date by the National Library of Medicine catalog, 35 titles of which were indexed in Medline ( Table 1 ). More than 70% of all included articles were retrieved from only five pediatric journals—25% ( n = 133) were published in “Pediatrics”, which was also the journal that published over time the highest numbers of papers ( n = 37,582), 17% ( n = 87) in “The Journal of Pediatrics”, and 31% ( n = 156) in other three journals (“JAMA Pediatrics”, “Archives of Diseases in Childhood”, and “Academic Pediatrics”). Among the other journals, from twenty of them, less than 25 papers each were retrieved, and from the last five, no paper was found. Journals addressing general pediatric medicine had higher numbers of papers on dental topics than those publishing papers related to a specific field within pediatrics ( Table 1 ).

3.2. Most Frequent Areas and Topics

Table 2 summarizes the included papers per area and per topic. Among the selected papers, those belonging to the dental hard tissues area were the most prevalent (45.6%), followed by those in the dental public health area (23.2%), the orofacial development area (15.3%), the soft tissues related conditions area (12.3%) and finally the orofacial trauma area (3.6%). Regarding the most recurrent topics for each area, caries prevention (37.0%) was the most prevalent in the hard tissues area, syndromic children (72.7%) in that on orofacial development, oral aphthae (51.6%) in soft tissues, health services (54.7%) in public health, and finally, suspected abuse (38.9%) was the most prevalent topic in the orofacial trauma area. The majority of the included papers had the dental topic as the primary outcome (71.4%).

Included papers by area, topic, and the primary or not primary outcome.

An observational study was the most prevalent type of study in all areas, ranging from 44.5% in the orofacial trauma area to 82.9% in the public health area ( Figure 2 ). Guidelines papers reached the highest value in orofacial trauma (27.7%), whilst case reports were more prevalent in soft tissues area (30.7%) and orofacial development area (27.3%).

Type of studies of the included papers in different dental areas.

Figure 3 displays the publication trends of papers on dental topics and total papers published in the selected pediatrics journals over the last seven decades (1951–2020). An increasing trend has been observed for both variables (R 2 = 0.9822 for total papers and R 2 = 0.8862 for total dental papers) with no significant differences (χ 2 (6) = 0.051 p > 0.05), although the rise in numbers of papers on dental issues has been delayed, starting from the 1990s. Within papers on dental issues, those featuring hard tissues and public health issues mostly contributed to the publication trend in the last three decades ( Figure 3 ).

Number of total papers, number of papers on dental issues (total and per area) published in pediatric journals over the last seven decades (1951–2020). Trend coefficients are reported for the total papers and total dental papers.

3.3. Caries Papers and Caries Global Burden

Since caries topics count for 36.3% of the total amount of papers on pediatric dentistry issues, the tendency of caries topics through time and the epidemiological trend of the disease in childhood (0–14 years old children) for the two dentitions was investigated. Caries data were obtained from the Global Burden Diseases Database available from 1991 ( Figure 4 ). Caries prevalence lowered in 2005 and increased in 2015, particularly in primary teeth in high-income countries, according to the number of papers published on caries prevention and treatment. Papers on caries epidemiology continued to increase over time.

Publication trend on caries topics and caries prevalence in children from high- and low-income countries (data from the Global Health Data Exchange website, 1991–2021).

3.4. Citation Results

The majority of papers ( n = 292, 57.9%) were cited between 1 and 10 times, whilst less than 7% of papers received more than 40 citations. A small group ( n = 46, 9.1%) of papers have no citations, and only four papers have obtained more than 100 citations ( Table S3 ). The citations distribution of the included studies is displayed by area and topics in Table 3 and Figure 5 . Papers on hard tissues and public health received the highest number of citations ( n = 2762, 43.9% and n = 2028, 32.3%, respectively), with caries prevention and health insurance as the most cited topics (17.8% and 14.1% of the total citations, respectively). Papers focusing on oral health as the primary outcome were cited more than those in which it was not, except for soft tissues and orofacial development areas. The highest average number of citations per paper was observed for public health area (mean = 17.3), followed by hard tissues (mean = 12.0), soft tissues (mean = 11.9), orofacial development (mean= 8.8), and orofacial trauma (mean = 4.6) area. All areas, except for orofacial trauma, included papers with a number of citations greater than 40; nevertheless, orofacial trauma did not include any paper with no citation.

Number of citations of the included papers by area.

Citations of the included papers by area, topic, and the primary or not primary outcome.

4. Discussion

This scoping review highlights the shortage of papers on pediatric dentistry issues in pediatric journals. In fact, although papers on dental topics increased over time, especially in the last two decades, the number of papers remains small if compared to the impressive increase of the overall number of papers in the pediatric journals considered.

A considerable asymmetry in the distribution of papers on dental issues among the thirty journals considered was observed. The majority of papers had been published by only five general pediatric journals, while those dedicated to specific areas seem less interested in publishing oral health issues. Surprisingly, only one paper was found in journals dedicated to childhood obesity, even if multiple aspects and shared risk factors link oral pathologies and the systemic condition [ 34 , 35 ]. This could be explained because pediatric dentistry is believed as a third-party competence. Pediatricians should be better informed about the close interconnection between systemic diseases and their influence on oral health. Similarly, dentists should not only focus on the diagnosis and therapy of dental disease, but contextualize it in the overall clinical picture [ 36 , 37 ].

Observational studies were the most prevalent type of study in all dental areas considered. Observational studies offer advantages as the relatively quick and low-cost carrying-out, and can be used to study multiple outcomes simultaneously. However, the main limit is that they cannot differentiate between cause and effect or within the sequence of events, and so they are not considered high-quality design studies. Nevertheless, because this study aims to measure risk factors or to collect exposure data related to a disease, as for many papers on dental topics, observational studies are often suitable [ 38 ].

The most common topic of papers published in pediatric journals was caries prevention; on that note, the number of papers seems to follow caries prevalence variation over time.

Although a high number of papers published on caries prevention in the last decade were found, caries data still highlights a high prevalence of lesions in primary teeth. This situation requires a great collective political, economic and medical effort, and the knowledge deriving from scientific literature can only represent the starting point. Moreover, an effort should also be advocated in improving communication and cooperation among practitioners who care for children to share multi-specialist knowledge [ 30 ].

The majority of the papers on dental topics amounted to less than ten citations each. This data is in line with the number of citations found for the top 100 most-cited papers published in pediatric dentistry journals in 2019, where only seven papers were cited more than 100 times with a range between 42 and 182 citations [ 39 ]. An interesting data, might be that the highest number of citations in proportion to the number of papers included, was found in public health areas, particularly regarding health insurance and health services topics. These topics have probably become of greater scientific interest for pediatric personnel with the introduction in the US of state insurance programs, aimed at children belonging to low-income families. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was established in 1997 and provides health coverage to children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid, but who can’t afford private insurances. The CHIP/Medicaid provides health coverage, including dental cares, to children and young people less than 21 years of age [ 40 ].

Some limitations of this review need to be considered—firstly, the choice of the journals included. Papers published in the first top 30 out of 128 total pediatrics journals ranked in 2019 JCR were included. This choice could have excluded eligible papers and might have influenced the final results. Journals searched represent nearly 25% of all pediatric journals ranked in 2019 and were all indexed in the 2018 and 2020 JCR. Secondly, the use of a bibliometric ranking to select the journals avoids the introduction of selection bias. Within this limit, it can be assumed that the journals and papers selected can be considered representative for the category, and results provide a reliable, though restricted, overview of dental publications in pediatric journals that fits the purpose of this scoping review. Thirdly, this review also included papers in which the dental topic was not the primary outcome, but only one of the aspects considered. This choice led to an enlargement of the included sample by about a quarter. On the one hand, if this inclusion may seem a selection bias, on the other, it allows the inclusion of multidisciplinary papers that are extremely useful for a correct integrated management of young patients.

A strength of this review was that it was the first, at best of authors’ knowledge, aiming to verify how much two related disciplines share scientific knowledge. This aspect is becoming more important day after day, due to knowledge advancement’s speed in medical fields, requiring constant updates not only on specific issues of each medical branch, but also on related issues. The scientific literature offers a unique chance to obtain constantly update information in an easy and economical way.

In conclusion, this scoping review provides an overview of dental publications in the first 30 pediatric journals according to the WOS impact factor. The results show a small number of dental publications compared to the total amount of published papers. The areas of greatest pediatric interest in the dental field seem to be caries and dental public health-related issues. The papers in these two areas were even the most cited. It is desirable that papers on pediatric dentistry issues arise in number and interest in the pediatric scientific scenario, allowing the two related disciplines to intertwine more in the future.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Biagini, head of the university library at the San Paolo Hospital in Milan for her support in the bibliographic research.

Supplementary Materials

The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/children8090720/s1 , Table S1: PRISMA-ScR Checklist, Table S2: List of the excluded papers, Table S3: List of the included papers.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, M.G.C., G.M.T. and N.C.; methodology, A.B.; software, A.B.; validation, S.C., C.S. and A.B.; formal analysis, A.B.; investigation, A.B.; resources, G.M.T.; data curation, S.C.; writing—original draft preparation, N.C.; writing—review and editing, M.G.C.; visualization, C.S.; supervision, M.G.C. and G.M.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research received no funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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