Document Type

Article

Journal Title

Dental Hypotheses

Publication Date

2019

Volume

10

Abstract

In the information age, human medical knowledge continues to grow exponentially, leading us to what could be best described as a knowledge tsunami. In 1950, medical knowledge doubled approximately every 50 years, by 1980, it doubled every 7 years, and by 2010, to a mere 3.5 years. Even more startling, in 2020 human medical knowledge will double in a stunning 73 days.[1],[2] Nowadays dental professionals face unprecedented information overload and must somehow manage it. Text mining, network visualization, and big data management techniques will help us to analyze and summarize exponentially growing knowledge in field of dentistry. In an intriguing effort, the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry has implemented a strategy to cope with dental information overload by publishing an annual review of selected scientific literature focused on seven different areas − prosthodontics, periodontics, dental materials, occlusion and temporomandibular disorders, sleep-disordered breathing, oral medicine, and oral and maxillofacial surgery and dental caries.[3] Following our 2017 attempt,[4] in this editorial we aimed to provide a summary of the scientific landscape of 2018 dental literature using mapping approaches and making them both manageable and practically useful for busy dental professionals.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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