A scientometric study of tobacco and alcohol use as risk factors for oral cavity health

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Tobacco and alcohol are the well-known carcinogenic agents of oral cavity health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the scientometric characteristics of alcohol and tobacco use and oral health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The papers on alcohol and tobacco use and oral cavity were published since 1885 and 1895, respectively. All the eligible papers were retrieved on March 20, 2023 from the Scopus database. RESULTS: There are 2529 and 1545 papers on tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking and oral cavity in the Scopus database, respectively. Based on the frequency of keywords in all included papers, both smoking and drinking are involved in mouth neoplasms, oral cancer, leukoplakia, and periodontal diseases. In the papers on tobacco and alcohol use and oral cavity, the same research keywords confirm tobacco and alcohol use associate with oral cancer risk possibly through influencing genetics and gene and protein expression. For the distinctive keywords, nicotine, smoking cessation, and electronic cigarette are unique keywords of tobacco use. Acetaldehyde, alcohol dehydrogenase, and alcohol metabolism are unique ones of alcohol use. CONCLUSION: This study for the first time reports the scientometric characteristics of tobacco and alcohol use and oral health, which might aid healthcare authorities to promote tobacco and alcohol control measures focused on the necessities of their population.