Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 May 12:39:e052.
doi: 10.1590/1807-3107bor-2025.vol39.052. eCollection 2025.

Shedding light on Brazil's contribution to photobiomodulation research in oral medicine: a bibliometric study

Lauren Frenzel Schuch  1 , Laura Borges Kirschnick  2 , Vivian Petersen Wagner  3 , Vanessa Rodrigues Velho  4 , Gabriela Sauer Llantada  4 , Marco Antonio Trevizani Martins  4 , Márcia Martins Marques  5 , Antonio Luiz Barbosa Pinheiro  6 , Jean Nunes Dos Santos  7 , Alan Roger Santos-Silva  2 , Cesar Augusto Migliorati  8 , Manoela Domingues Martins  4
Affiliations

Shedding light on Brazil's contribution to photobiomodulation research in oral medicine: a bibliometric study

Lauren Frenzel Schuch et al. Braz Oral Res. .

Abstract

The aim of this study was to verify the role of Brazilian researchers in publications related to photobiomodulation (PBM) in the field of oral medicine. We examined ten years from 2012 to 2022 across 16 journals. Our analysis included scientific publications with a Brazilian author either in the first or last position and publications from international collaborations. The search yielded 43,525 publications. After examining titles and abstracts, 269 studies were categorized as having a specific emphasis on PBM in oral medicine, of which 147 (54.6%) were undertaken by research groups based in Brazil. The citations ranged from 1 to 149 (an average of 31 per manuscript). The male-to-female ratio of first and last author was 1:2 and 1:1.4, respectively. Brazilian involvement in the field of PBM was significant, with a marked focus on basic research, clinical applications, and technological advances. Our results also underscore the remarkable participation of female researchers in pivotal roles. Brazilian publications positively impacted healthcare worldwide using PBM in oral medicine, as evidenced by the substantial number of articles published and the citations of these articles received.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Interests: The authors certify that they have no commercial or associative interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. A) Distribution of PBM articles (total and Brazilian) in 10 years. B) Distribution of Brazilian articles in journals in the fields of PBM and Oral Medicine.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. A) Number of Brazilian PBM publications according to study type. B) Disclosed funding sources of Brazilian PBM publications. C) Country of origin of international collaborators in Brazilian PBM publications.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. A) Total number of PBM publications (blue) and Brazilian representation (green) amongst each journal. B) Number of studies in each geographic region. C) Gender distribution of first and last authors.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. A) Scatter plot showing a significant inverse correlation between number of citations and year of publication. Older articles had the highest citation scores. B) Box plot of number of citations according to type of journal (Oral medicine vs PBM), showing a tendency for higher citation in PBM journals. C) Interleaved scatter of number of citations according to journal. D) Pairwise comparison in which red lines denote no significant difference and blue lines statistically significant differences. These were observed between Laser in Medical Science vs Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy and Oral Oncology vs Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.. A) Interleaved scatter of number of citations according to study type. Prospective clinical studies had more citations than case reports (Dunn Multiple comparison test). Other pairwise comparisons were not significant. B) Interleaved scatter of number of citations according to international collaboration. Mann-Whitney test showed that studies which involved international partners had more citations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Mester A, Mester A. The history of photobiomodulation: endre mester (1903-1984) Photomed Laser Surg. 2017 Aug;35(8):393–394. doi: 10.1089/pho.2017.4332. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Grzybowski A, Pietrzak K. From patient to discoverer-Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860-1904) -the founder of phototherapy in dermatology. Clin Dermatol. 2012;30(4):451–455. doi: 10.1016/j.clindermatol.2011.11.019. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gøtzsche PC. Niels Finsen's treatment for lupus vulgaris. J R Soc Med. 2011 Jan;104(1):41–42. doi: 10.1258/jrsm.2010.10k066. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anders JJ, Lanzafame RJ, Arany PR. Low-level light/laser therapy versus photobiomodulation therapy. Photomed Laser Surg. 2015 Apr;33(4):183–184. doi: 10.1089/pho.2015.9848. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Herpich CM, Amaral AP, Leal-Junior EC, Tosato JP, Gomes CA, Arruda EE, et al. Analysis of laser therapy and assessment methods in the rehabilitation of temporomandibular disorder: a systematic review of the literature. J Phys Ther Sci. 2015 Jan;27(1):295–301. doi: 10.1589/jpts.27.295. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources