Finite element analysis in the Dental Sciences: A Bibliometric and a Visual Study

Abstract

Introduction and aims: Finite element analysis (FEA) is an incrementally practical and precise tool for the prediction of stress effects on different tissue structures and has therefore interested dental researchers for decades. This bibliometric and visualized study was aimed to assess the research progress related to FEA in the dental sciences in terms of research trends and frontiers.

Methods: The articles about FEA studies in this field during 1999 to 2024 were obtained from Web of Science Core Collection. Then, these results were analysed and plotted using Microsoft Excel, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace in order to find out the historical evolution, current hotspots, and future directions.

Results: Total 2838 literature records related to the topic were retrieved from Web of Science Core Collection. The most active country and institution were USA (538 documents) and Universidade Estadual Paulista (140 documents), respectively. Baggi et al from University of Naples Federico II was the author with the most highly cited article (352 citations), which was published on the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry in 2008. Dental Materials ranked first (231 documents) among the 10 journals with the greatest numbers of relevant publications. The top three trending keywords were 'dental implant', 'stress distribution', and 'fracture'. The endocrown, clear aligner, and posterior edentulism were scientific frontiers in this field.

Conclusion: The present study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of research in the dental science by FEA approaches, which will identify active hotspots of scientific interest to guide further research endeavours.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; Biomechanics; Decision-making; Dental practice; Dental stress analysis; Finite element analysis.

Fig. 1

Trends in the number of publications and analysis of countries/regions in finite element analysis in the dental research field. (A) The annual worldwide publication output. (B) Growth trends in the publication output from the top 10 countries.

Fig. 2

Cluster analysis of countries/regions and institutions. Collaboration network among countries/regions with more than 5 documents (A and B), and among institutions with more than 15 documents (C and D). In parts (A and C), bubble size indicates the amount of publication, and the same colour form a collaboration cluster, while distance between bubbles revealed the correlation between two items. In parts (B and D), bubble colour corresponds to the average year of publication in the indicated countries/regions, ranging from blue (earlier) to yellow (more recent).

Fig. 3

Dynamics of the productivity of core journals.

Fig. 4

The visualized map of clustering analysis on cited journals in the field of FEA and oral science during 1999 to 2024.

Fig. 5

A co-occurrence network visualization map for the top 49 keywords. (A) The bubble size indicates the frequency of occurrence, and the same colour form a co-occurrence cluster. (B) The bubble colour corresponds to the average publication year associated with the indicated keywords.

Fig. 6

Circular view (A), timeline view (B), and timezone view (C) of co-cited studies associated with researches focused on FEA and dental science with more than 5 occurrences. The bubble colour corresponds to the average publication year associated with the indicated articles, while the size of nodes and the thickness of strings indicate the frequency of occurrence and the intensity of links, respectively. Red ring represents the burst hotspot.