The most-cited 100 articles regarding the usage of lasers in endodontics received 10,647 citations in total while the total citation density count was 761.20. The mean and standard deviations of total citation and citation density were 106.47 ± 65.76 and 7.61 ± 5.13, respectively. The most-cited 100 articles are presented in Supplementary Material Table 1, along with citation-based information and main findings.

A positive correlation between citation and age of publication was found without a significant difference (correlation coefficient = 0.028, P > 0.05, R2: 0.062). However, there was a statistically significant negative correlation between citation density and age of publication (correlation coefficient = -0.759, P < 0.001, R2: 0.337). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between citation and IF without a significant difference (correlation coefficient = 0.028, P > 0.05, R2: 0.004). The associations are shown in Fig. 2.

Associations between the number of citations and age of publication (a), the citation density and age of publication (b), journal IF and number of citations (c)

Among 3 decades, both the number of citations and citation density values differed significantly (P < 0.05). While the mean number of citations was significantly higher in the time period 2001–2010 compared to the other periods (P < 0.05), values were similar between the periods 1990–2000 and 2011–2014 (P > 0.05). Regarding citation density, significantly higher and lower values were observed in 2011–2024 and 1990–2000, respectively. Table 1 presents metrics for the top 100 most-cited articles about lasers in endodontics in periods. Accordingly, the highest number of articles were published between the time period 2001–2010 (n = 42) and in the years 2006 (n = 8) and 2011 (n = 8) followed by 2007, 2008, and 2009 (n = 7 for each).

Twenty-five different journals contributed to this bibliometric and scientometric study. Among them, the Journal of Endodontics had the highest number of publications (n = 34), followed by the International Endodontic Journal (n = 15), and Lasers in Surgery and Medicine (n = 12). According to the Journal Citation Reports in 2022, the 5 journals with the highest IFs were the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (n = 1, IF:8.4), International Endodontic Journal (n = 15, IF:5), Journal of Dentistry (n = 2, IF: 4.4), Journal of Endodontics (n = 34, IF: 4.2), and Frontiers in Physiology (n = 1, IF:4).

A total of 25 countries participated in this study. The United States of America (US) was the most productive country with 24 publications, followed by Brazil (n = 9). Accordingly, co-authorship analysis of the countries revealed that the US collaborated with the highest number of countries (n = 7). The majority of the countries were associated with domestic collaborations. Moreover, the first 3 countries that had the highest total link strength were the US (n = 12), Brazil (n = 6), and the United Kingdom (n = 4).

Sixty-three institutions were retrieved according to the affiliation of the first author. The University of Showa made the highest scientific contribution (n = 7), followed by the University of Harvard (n = 6) and the University of Vienna (n = 6). The first ten most contributed countries and the institutions with at least 2 publications are given in Table 2.

In total, 480 authors contributed to the list of the top 100 most-cited articles about lasers in endodontics. Koukichi Matsumoto was the most productive author with 8 publications, followed by Andreas Moritz and Yuichi Kimura with 7 articles. Tom C. Pagonis, Kawe Goharkhay, Carla R. Fontana, Roeland J.G. De Moor, Michael R. Hamblin, Maarten Meire, Ulrich Schoop, and Wolfgang Sperr had 6 publications. However, Aguinaldo Silva Garcez (n = 5) was the most-seen first author, followed by Frank H. Takeda (n = 4). Regarding collaborations, Nikolaos S. Soukos (n = 62) and Tom C. Pagonis (n = 54) had the highest total link strength.

International collaborations between participating countries, institutions, and authors are presented in Fig. 3.

International collaborations between participated countries (a), institutions (b), and authors (c)

Ex vivo (n = 39) studies were mainly performed followed by in vitro (n = 30) studies and reviews (n = 19). Thirteen study fields were determined by 3 investigators (SNU, CK, and PB). “Antimicrobial effect” was the dominant research area with 62 publications. Study types and fields are demonstrated in Table 3. In addition, according to the EL pyramid [22], studies had mostly V (n = 88), I (n = 5), II (n = 5), and III (n = 2) levels.

Except for the review articles which include various laser types, the articles mainly investigated the specific laser types as follows: argon (Ar), argon floride (ArF), CO2, diode, Er, Cr: YSGG, Er: YAG, gallium aluminum arsenide (GaAlAs), Helium-neon (He-Ne), potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP), Nd: YAG, and Nd: YAP. In addition, Laser Doppler Flowmetry was also used for diagnostic purposes. Among them, diode (n = 40) and Er: YAG (n = 31) lasers were the most investigated types.

The VOSviewer obtained 197 keywords in total. To enhance the clarity, the co-occurrence was decreased to at least 2 articles. Consequently, 47 keywords (nodes) met the threshold, and these were grouped into 8 clusters, and a maximum of 1,000 lines were loaded. “Photodynamic therapy” (n = 21, total link strength = 42) was the most preferred keywords followed by “root canal” (n = 18, total link strength = 52) and “laser” (n = 14, total link strength = 41). Figure 4 presents the visualization map of keywords used in selected studies.

The visualization map of frequently used keywords