Background: Pit and fissure sealants have become an essential preventive approach for occlusal caries, mainly in the young population. In the last decade, tremendous research has been done in sealant materials, effectiveness, application procedures, and clinical results; therefore, the trends, collaboration networks, and influential contributions need to be summarized in a structured manner. To conduct a deep bibliometric analysis of the published articles on pit and fissure sealants between 2012 and 2023, to track research trends, key contributors, collaborative networks, and gaps in the literature.Methods: Articles were obtained from Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases with a bibliometric analysis of articles published from 2012 to 2023. The metrics were calculated using the package Biblioshiny in R while VOSviewer was used in the analysis of authorship, citation, and thematic network.Results: A total of 1,215 articles with 4,059 authors was analyzed, averaging 4.56 authors per paper, attesting to the high collaboration level. The United States, Brazil, and India are known to lead the sealant research activities. Sealant research tends to indicate the extent to which the world is going in the preventive dentistry field. Trends indicated a maximum output in 2015 and 2019 followed by a decline in subsequent years, indicating an overall annual decline in the rate of publication of -2.16%. Thematic analysis found that the most common themes of research were sealant efficacy, material innovation, and application techniques.Conclusion: Analysis Dramatic progresses in pit and fissure sealant research are highlighted due to an increasing global network. However, areas include improved long-term clinical follow up and optimizing retention when these sealants are put on under different conditions. Gaps should be addressed on how to innovate materials, form, and techniques and strategies for sealants that aim for evidence-based preventive recommendations and guidelines in public health dental practice.
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