Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To identify the trends of the top 100 cited articles on economic evaluation in preventive oral health programs. METHODS: Top 100 papers involving economic evaluation or cost analysis of preventive oral health programs were selected by querying Scopus and Web of Science databases. Bibliometric analysis was performed using the Bibliometrix tool in R Studio. Performance analysis and science mapping were performed for these 100 articles. Performance analysis included publication-related metrics, citation-related metrics, and citation-publication-related metrics. Science mapping provided information on citation analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, co-word analysis, and co-authorship details. RESULTS: The total citation number of the top 100 most cited articles ranged from 4 to 98, with publication dates spanning from 1978 to 2023. The majority of articles (33.70 %) originated from the USA, while Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology stood out as the journal with the highest number of articles published in the top 100 (16 out of 100). Griffin PM emerged as the most cited author, based on the frequency measurement of the number of papers. Program data economic evaluation was the most commonly reported study design, and fluoridation programs were the most frequent topic. The most reported type of economic analysis performed in the articles was cost-effectiveness analysis. CONCLUSION: The bibliometric analysis of the top 100 most-cited articles on economic evaluation of preventive oral health programs revealed the lacunae in the research literature on this topic. Therefore, preventive oral health programs should be economically evaluated to eliminate the disparity in resource allocation particularly in upper middle income and low-income countries.