Insights Into History and Trends of Teaching and Learning in Stomatology Education: Bibliometric Analysis.

BACKGROUND

Stomatology education has experienced substantial transformations over recent decades. Nevertheless, a comprehensive summary encompassing the entirety of this field remains absent in the literature.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to perform a bibliometric analysis to evaluate the research status, current focus, and emerging trends in this field over the last two decades.

METHODS

We retrieved publications concerning teaching and learning in stomatology education from the Web of Science core collection covering the period from 2003 to 2023. Subsequently, we conducted a bibliometric analysis and visualization using R-Bibliometrix and CiteSpace.

RESULTS

In total, 5528 publications focusing on teaching and learning in stomatology education were identified. The annual number of publications in this field has shown a consistent upward trend. The United States and the United Kingdom emerged as the leading contributors to research. Among academic institutions, the University of Iowa produced the highest number of publications. The Journal of Dental Education was identified as the journal with the highest citation. Wanchek T authored the most highly cited articles in the field. Emerging research hotspots were characterized by keywords such as "deep learning," "machine learning," "online learning," "virtual reality," and "convolutional neural network." The thematic map analysis further revealed that "surgery" and "accuracy" were categorized as emerging themes.

CONCLUSIONS

The visualization bibliometric analysis of the literature clearly depicts the current hotspots and emerging topics in stomatology education concerning teaching and learning. The findings are intended to serve as a reference to advance the development of stomatology education research globally.