Growth and Dissemination of Endodontic Knowledge

Abstract

Background: Endodontics is a relatively young clinical specialty that received formal recognition by the American Dental Association in 1963 and by the Commission of Dental Accreditation in 1975. Biological and technological advances have allowed endodontics to evolve into a scientifically based specialty that uses many meticulous methods both at the laboratory and clinical levels. The history, growth and impact of endodontics can be followed by studying the quantity and quality of published literature and comparing it to other dental specialties. Purpose: The aim of this investigation was to use a variety of web based bibliometric tools and describe the growth and dissemination of endodontic knowledge both within and outside the specialty community. Specific aims included quantification of the entire endodontic literature, identification of types of research, analysis of publication patterns and discovery of who has supported and contributed to that knowledge. This overview of endodontic knowledge should provide information on how this may be enhanced in the future. Methods: A series of specific questions were developed that covered many aspects of literature quantification. The value of the literature was assessed by the use of the Impact Factor and citation analysis. Search strategies were developed that could utilize databases such as MEDLINE, Web of Science, Journal Citation Reports and Scopus. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics and by further analysis using linear regression and correlation techniques. Results: MEDLINE has indexed over 35,000 endodontically related papers since 1963. The two journals dedicated to the specialty, the Journal of Endodontics and 3 the International Endodontic Journal both publish more papers on endodontics than any other individual journal yet contain only around 20% of the all endodontic publications. The increase in the total number of research papers published each year in endodontics currently surpasses that in orthodontics and periodontics however, endodontics has fewer higher evidence-­‐based studies compared to periodontics. Government funding was the highest for clinical trials and randomized controlled trials. When analyzing clinical publications within four clinical categories of etiology, diagnosis, prognosis and therapy, endodontics has considerably more papers relating to orthograde root canal therapy compared to any other clinical category. The total number of papers retrieved from the diagnosis clinical category was highest in papers that looked at Periapical disease and similar trends were observed in the prognosis category for papers relating to Endodontic surgery. The significance, of endodontic publications as judged by the Impact Factor has increased substantially over the last ten years when compared to orthodontics and periodontics. The number of citations for endodontic papers has begun to increase rapidly in 2002 especially in the endodontic journals themselves. The majority of endodontic research has originated from the United States, Brazil and England and from small rather than large institutions.