Publication Trends Studies Involving Disabled Persons with Dental Care Needs: A 20-Year Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate scientific production on disabled persons with dental care needs over a 20-year period. Material and Methods: The search was conducted in the PubMed database using the MeSH terms "Disabled Persons" AND "Dentistry". Three researchers selected articles based on readings of the title, abstract and full text. The articles were categorized according to periodical, country, study design, subject and classification of comorbidities and associated disorders. Three hundred ninety-seven articles published in 140 periodicals were included. Results: The periodicals Special Care in Dentistry (54), Dental Clinics of North America (14) and British Dental Journal (14) accounted for 21% of the publications. The studies were conducted in 50 countries, with the United States accounting for 33%. More than half (52%) of the studies had a cross-sectional design. The main subject addressed was oral diagnosis and most of the comorbidities were generalized disabilities. Conclusion: Although a large number of the periodicals have contributed to knowledge building on disabled persons with dental care needs, the number of articles is small compared to other fields of dentistry. Moreover, important gaps in knowledge persist and projects with better methodological designs are needed to offer a more substantial contribution to clinical practice.

Retrospective Evaluation of 20 Years of Outpatient Dental Services to Adults with Disabilities at the Dental Hospitals of the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria

“…The aim of this retrospective cohort study was a breakdown of chairside dental services to disabled adults by dental students over a period of 20 years in order to evaluate the performance-related outcomes of our outpatient program and to discuss feasibility of disabled individuals' chairside treatment. Our findings contribute clinically relevant data to the still sketchy knowledge on disabled persons' dental care needs as postulated by Ferreira et al 2023 in a recent review, which evaluated scientific production on ""disabled persons" and "dentistry"" over a 20 year period [17]. Most included publications were cross-sectional studies and simple literature studies, results of which are not directly applicable in clinical practice.…”