LAUSR

Dental anxiety has been a common phenomenon under investigation for decades. This report aimed to identify the historical roots of dental anxiety in the research literature. The literature database Web of Science Core Collection was searched to identify relevant papers on this theme. Cited reference analysis on the collected literature set was performed with CRExplorer, a dedicated bibliometric software. This analysis successfully identified the references dealing with dental anxiety in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They included essays that provided expert opinion on dental anxiety, reported semi-structured interviews to elucidate its underlying reasons, introduced psychometric scales to assess dental anxiety, and proposed theories and arguments from psychoanalytic aspects. Several references dealing with anxiety in general were also identified. To conclude, cited reference analysis was useful in revealing the historical origins of dental anxiety research. These cited references provided a concrete foundation to support subsequent dental anxiety research.