Dentinal microcracks induced by endodontic procedures: A scientometric and bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND: Due to the large number of publications relating the occurrence of dental microcracks to endodontic procedures, this bibliometric study evaluated the scientific pattern and trends in literature and provided an overview of scientific production in this context. AIM: To analyze, quantify, and characterize the scientific production and trends of published articles evaluating dentinal microcracks formation after endodontic treatment procedures between 2010 and 2020 using bibliometric indicators. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Published articles were found by the search in the Medline (PubMed) and Scopus database using the combination of the following keywords: Dentinal crack OR Dentinal Microcrack OR Crack formation OR Dentin Defect AND Endodontic treatment OR Root canal preparation OR Canal Preparation OR Root canal treatment OR endodontic procedures. The search was also conducted in the Journal of Endodontics and International Endodontic Journal. After inclusion and exclusion criteria application, data from all studies included were collected. RESULTS: Among the 556 results after the search, 45 studies were included and analyzed in this bibliometry. No trend was observed in terms of the increasing number of articles over time. Most of them used an in vitro design, compared the effect of different endodontic techniques/systems for root canal instrumentation on dentinal microcracks formation, and were conducted in Turkey, Brazil, and India. Journal of Endodontics and International Endodontic Journal were the main journals with a higher number of articles published. Interestingly, studies conducted with some funding did not lead to higher citation numbers. Moreover, a relevant proportion of studies did not consider the inclusion of control groups, baseline evaluation, or statistical analysis. Micro-CT was the main technique used to evaluate microcrack presence. CONCLUSION: Microcrack formation after the use of different endodontic techniques/systems has been constantly evaluated in the literature. There is a pattern of methodologies used, which may explain the concentration of these studies in specific journals and countries.