The 100 top-cited articles in orthodontics from 1975 to 2011

To identify the 100 top-cited articles published in orthodontics journals and to analyze their characteristics to investigate the achievement and development of orthodontics research in past decades. The Institute for Scientific Information Web of Knowledge Database and the 2011 Journal Citation Report Science Editions were used to retrieve the 100 top-cited articles published in orthodontics journals since 1975. Some basic information was collected by the Analyze Tool on the Web of Science, including citation time, publication title, journal name, publication year, and country and institution of origin. A further study was then performed to determine authorship, article type, field of study, study design, and level of evidence. The 100 target articles were retrieved from three journals: American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (n = 74), The Angle Orthodontist (n = 15), and European Journal of Orthodontics (n = 11). Since 1975, the articles cited 89 to 545 times mainly originated from the United States, and the overwhelming majority of articles were clinical. The most common study design was case series; 40 articles were classified as level IV and 12 as level V evidence. The 100 top-cited articles in orthodontics are generally old articles, rarely possessing high-level evidence.