Bibliometric analysis of scientific production on salivary biomarkers in PubMed and Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source during the period 2000-2018

Background: Saliva protects the integrity of the oral tissues, but also offers evidences for local and systemic diseases. Bibliometrics in studies related to dentistry is uncommon in the literature. Objective: From this perspective, the aim of this study was to map the scientific landscape related to salivary biomarkers research worldwide between 2000 and 2018. Methods: This study adopted a bibliometric method. An observational, descriptive, retrospective investigation was carried out, with quantitative and qualitative description of the data, through the analysis of documents. PubMed (PM) and Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source (DOSS) have been selected as important online bibliometric databases for searching and retrieving documents, in order to display the structural and dynamic aspects, and the evolution of salivary biomarkers scientific research. All data presented in this study were analyzed using the following software programs VOSviewer, Publish or Perish, Mendeley Desktop and SPSS version 19 for windows. Results: In PM, 5035 documents were registered, with 13% of publications in dental journals. The most discussed diagnostic topics were related to tumor biomarkers (24%) and salivary gland neoplasms (15%). In DOSS, 218 documents were registered, with 52% of publications in 10 journals. Periodontal disease (37%) and oral cancer (20%) were the most studied diagnostic topics. In both databases, Wong DT (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) was the author with more papers (1.95% in PM and 5.96% in DOSS). Conclusions: During the study period, international research on salivary biomarkers was increased, indicating the importance of salivary constituents for novel approaches to prognosis, diagnosis and monitoring of patients with both oral and systemic diseases. However, the scope of multicenter studies was lower than expected, given the enormous burden of global health problems related to various chemical components of saliva.