Trends in Photobiomodulation in Dentistry between 2018 and 2022: Advances and Investigative Agenda

Photobiomodulation (PBM) is a laser therapy used in medical sciences that acts by modulating biological processes as an alternative palliative treatment and as a mechanism that favours the immune response, among other functions. This study explores the trends in scientific production related to PBM in terms of publications, citations, impact, keywords and clusters and attempts to predict research trends. The data for this quantitative and qualitative bibliometric analysis were obtained from 608 scientific documents retrieved in November 2022, i.e., 123 from Web of Science and 485 from Scopus, that were processed in Excel to extract the information, and subsequently, productivity and impact were evaluated through eligibility. VOSviewer was used to determine associativity. The results of this study indicate that the scientific production on PBM follows the growth power law between the exponential and linear phases; additionally, the most relevant concepts in recent years have been identified in the research agenda: laser therapy, orthodontics, and dental pulp stem cells. This analysis shows that in the last 5 years, there has been growing interest in relation to PBM in dentistry as a complementary alternative to current protocols.光生物调节（Photobiomodulation，PBM）是一种应用于医学领域的激光疗法，通过调控生物过程发挥作用，可作为替代性姑息治疗手段，同时具备促进免疫应答等多种功能。本研究针对光生物调节领域的科研产出趋势展开系统性探讨，涵盖出版物数量、被引频次、学术影响力、关键词及聚类分析等维度，并尝试预测该领域的未来研究方向。本次定量与定性相结合的文献计量分析所用数据，采集自2022年11月检索获得的608篇科学文献，其中Web of Science收录123篇，Scopus收录485篇；研究人员先通过Excel完成文献信息提取，随后通过纳入标准评估完成科研产出量与学术影响力的量化评价。本研究采用VOSviewer工具进行文献关联分析。研究结果表明，光生物调节领域的科研产出在指数增长阶段与线性增长阶段之间符合幂律增长规律；此外，近年该领域研究议程中的核心热点概念已被明确界定：激光疗法、正畸学以及牙髓干细胞。本分析显示，近五年来，牙科领域将光生物调节作为当前临床诊疗方案补充替代手段的关注度持续提升。