A map of Brazilian dental research in the last decade

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to analyze dental research trends in Brazil over the past nine years. All abstracts presented at the 26 th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for Dental Research in 2009 (n = 2648) were classified based on field of knowledge, home institution and geographic region. Data were compared with those previously published based on abstracts presented at various meetings. Between 2001 and 2006, five fields of knowledge had a greater than 10% representation among the total number of studies. These fields included restorative dentistry/dental materials (RD/DM), periodontics, endodontics, pediatric dentistry and population-based oral health. In 2009, only RD/DM maintained a greater than 10% proportion of meeting abstracts, and basic fields comprised the second position among those fields with greater representation (9.8%). The majority of research studies were performed at public institutions, and the number of abstracts per state increased significantly in 2009 (Wilcoxon test, p < 0.001). The southeastern region of Brazil submitted the greatest number of abstracts; however, other regions also demonstrated increased participation in research (11%). The percentage distribution of abstracts between states remained constant (Wilcoxon test, p = 0.255; r s = 0.873). The results of the present study suggest a slight shift in the scientific research profile in Brazilian dentistry: fields related to professional disciplines have declined in relative research participation, while increasing interest has been observed in basic fields and new specialties.

Half‐century of Dental Public Health research: bibliometric analysis of world scientific trends

“…Dental Epidemiology and Public Health (DPH) is a subspeciality within public health and epidemiology, and it has been defined by the NHS (UK) as ‘the science and the art of preventing and controlling disease… [with] focus on dental and oral health issues in communities and populations rather than individual patients’ and also by ADA (USA) as ‘a non‐clinical speciality of dentistry involved in the assessment of dental health needs and improving the dental health of populations rather than individuals’. DPH content has been estimated to comprise 6.8% of articles and up to 14.0% of conference abstract published in the dental literature, and 5.0% of articles published in public health journals. Dental caries, dental services and the social determinants of health have been identified as major themes of research published in Brazilian journals, but this has not yet been described at the international level.…”

Evaluation of scientific production in the field of Dentistry in Public Health from 1999 to 2009

“…In Brazil, the social area has been prioritized by the Ministry of Health, and an example of this is the national health system research program: shared health management -PPSUS ("Programa Pesquisa para o SUS: gestão compartilhada em saúde) which was instituted in 2004 to fund research in the social field, with a view to contributing to the reduction in inter-regional inequalities in the area of public health, 28 and the scientific output in oral health within social field has increased significantly 13 and continues in evidence 29,30 .…”

Brazilian scientific production in periodontics: a national panorama from a bibliometric study

“…Some studies have conducted a survey of the scientific output in Dentistry done in Brazil in recent years, in order to know the profile of this production. Researches in areas related to technical and traditional disciplines in Dentistry have decreased; meanwhile, it has been observed an increased attention in basic areas and new Dentistry specialties (7).…”