Relationship between periodontitis and systemic diseases: A bibliometric and visual study

To provide a comprehensive and updated mapping of observational studies assessing the relationship between periodontitis and systemic diseases through a bibliometric and visual analysis. A search was conducted using the Web of Science database, covering the period 1989 to 2024. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) from the US National Library of Medicine was used to categorize systemic conditions, focusing on terms unrelated to stomatognathic diseases. The analysis included keyword co-occurrence mapping, co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, and co-citation analysis. Quality indicators such as silhouette score, modularity, and centrality were considered to assess the network's quality. The research strategy identified 6106 records, of which 1519 met the inclusion criteria. The analysis revealed that 46.73% of the literature on the topic was published in the last 5 years and that the annual publication trend peaked in 2023. Nutritional & Metabolic Diseases (n = 398), Cardiovascular Diseases (n = 335), Female Urogenital Diseases & Pregnancy Complications (n = 244), and Musculoskeletal Diseases (n = 182) were the most representative categories of systemic diseases associated with periodontitis. The most co-cited journals on the topic were the Journal of Periodontology (n = 1412), the Journal of Clinical Periodontology (n = 1343), the Journal of Dental Research (n = 940), and Periodontology 2000 (n = 849). The USA, China, Brazil, and Sweden were the countries that contributed the most to the number of publications. The analysis conducted in the present study revealed a growing trend of observational studies evaluating the association between periodontitis and systemic diseases, highlighting the negative impact of periodontitis on a plethora of systemic conditions and a rising translational interest in this relationship. With an aging population, periodontitis is expected to affect a growing number of people in the coming decades, presenting significant challenges to public health. Improved knowledge is, therefore, essential to enable more comprehensive care, preventive strategies, and optimal oral health for patients with periodontitis.