Evolution, disciplinary integration, and frontiers of multi-omics and single-cell technologies in periodontology: a...

The field of periodontology is undergoing a paradigm shift from traditional microbiology to systems biology, driven by advancements in multi-omics and single-cell technologies. Despite the rapid surge in publications, a Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC)-based bibliometric and scientometric analysis mapping the evolutionary trajectory and emerging frontiers of these technologies in periodontal research remains needed. We performed a bibliometric and scientometric analysis of literature published from 2000 to 2025, with records from early 2026 used only as an exploratory frontier update, using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Data visualization and network analysis were conducted using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the R-bibliometrix package. Additionally, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling was employed to extract underlying research themes from unstructured text data. A total of 559 eligible publications were identified, showing a marked growth trend. China and the United States emerged as the dominant contributors. The evolutionary trajectory was delineated into three distinct phases: foundational exploration, multi-omics integration, and the single-cell resolution era. LDA modeling identified nine core topics, focusing on local host-microbiome interactions, systemic interconnections, and periodontal regeneration-related research. Keyword bursts highlighted "single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq)," "microenvironment," and "macrophage polarization" as active current frontiers. The field appears to be transitioning within the WoSCC-indexed literature from descriptive microbiome studies toward functional multi-omics and single-cell-resolution analysis, providing an exploratory knowledge-map-based reference for future precision diagnostics and regenerative research in periodontology.