Student
Ms. Kateland Wolfe
10 July 2015
ENG 1102
How do Oral Health Issues Affect the Topics Discussed in the Journal?
In 1859, the American Dental Association was founded and since has become the nation’s largest dental association that commits to the improvement of oral health for the public (ADA). Following that, the Journal of the American Dental Association became the journal for ADA in 1913. JADA has been the nation’s leading dental journal by providing its readers information on peer-reviewed research, clinical information, dental health and overall health (JADA). Currently, JADA publishes monthly issues that include full-text articles on developing topics in dentistry and many ethical and practical issues of dentists.Periodontitis, plaque, and many other oral issues are affecting many patients; therefore, JADA has been publishing a lot more issues on oral health because awarenessis growing among the public.
Methods
Voyant Tools is a web-based, text reading analysis tool to interpret many works of writing. I used this tool to feed my journal articles from the years of 2011 to 2015. Initially, I knew I wanted to address how the improvement of technology affects journal topics. However, this research question was not evident from the graphs and word clouds of Voyant Tools. Therefore, the research question became about how oral health issues affect journal topic articles. With the help of this tool, I uploaded each downloadable article by year into a different Voyant Tools tab. Then, I used the word frequencies to create a graph. I based my word frequencies on words that relate to oral health or conditions that affect oral health. The words I may have searched for would include plaque, caries, periodontal, and lesions to name a few. These particular words are very important to the field of dentistry because it is a growing issue to those who do not maintain healthy oral habits. Also, each person may experience these health issues in many different ways that are addressed throughout the journal. Moreover, I used the word frequencies to analyze what this means for the public and how the journal has increased its discussion in its’ articles
Discussion/Results
During the year of 2011, oral health was a huge topic of discussion towards the beginning of the yearmost likely due to seasons changing. There were several articles available to the public about dental plaque, oral health, marginal bone loss, and diagnosis and treatment of dental caries. The fourth issue of the 142nd volume saw the greatest increase in oral health topics that most likely contributed to the warmer temperatures. Since nothing major occurred in history during this time, the only plausible reasoning for an increase in oral health articles is because of the time of year. It can be deduced that during the month of April the temperature gets warmer, so the consumption of many plaque-producing foods are increasing. Also, the school year is winding down for many children; therefore, their consumption of healthy foods begins to decline. All of this contributes to plaque build-up, caries, and the inflammation of the gums because more candy, ice cream, and many other foods are eaten without the act of flossing or other healthy oral habits. This reasoning would explain the sudden increase of theword “plaque.” Plaque is a greatly used term because everyone has it and everyone could learn ways to effectively control it. Moreover, the journal saw the greatest increase in oral health issue topicsin April, which is very helpful for many people as they proceed into the summer months, because they can learn beneficial ways to keep a healthy smile while enjoying all the wonderful sweets they can acquire.
The year 2012 saw no consistency in the topics for journal articles; however, many different oral health issues were discussed. This is still effective because throughout the year many patients can relate with the many different concerns they may have. During this particular volume, not one oral health issue received more frequency than another on a consistent basis. From Voyant Tools, it seems as though each issue had its own agenda for what oral health issue would be discussed. In the month of March, “pain” was a declining topic with the advent of “erosion”. In June, “treatment,”“tobacco,” and “the affect of pain” were the main issues discussed, which most likely correlated with the cover story, “Tooth survival in older adults with complex health issues”(JADA). Towards the later of the year, “caries” received the most discussion over any other oral health issue. Since 2012 does not show any strong trends in journal article topics, there is not any correlation between what occurred during the year and what is discussed each issue. From this, JADA’s purpose was to attract many different patients with differing oral health issues and concerns.
On the other hand in 2013, JADA’s articles were tailored more towards middle-aged and older adults because “cancer,” “hypersensitivity,” “restoration,” and “lesions” received humongous word frequency. From Voyant Tools, the graph gave very astonishing results of the word frequencies. Before all else, “cancer” was the declining topic at the beginning of the yearand thenshowed a sharp increase towards the later while becoming stagnant and then proceedingto a downward decline at the end of the year. The graph of “cancer” alone raised many questions. In August, “cancer” was a huge topic in the article because research suggested that cryotherapy and keratinocyte are beneficial in preventing oral mucositis in patients with cancer (JADA 144). This research alone is very beneficial because those who experience cancer treatment could also be affected with oral health issues. However, in the middle of the year, “hypersensitivity,”“lesions,” and “restoration” were far more important than “cancer.”The focus then became on addressing diabetes and tooth loss. Moreover, the many articles were targeted for the middle-aged and older adults who experience root caries, lesions, and bone regeneration from smoking. More importantly, the 144th volume greatly addressed the needs of the public. Not only was the target audience known from the journal issue topics, but alsothey were directly addressed.
2014 saw a decline in addressing the public on oral health issues because many articles were about surveys’ and various studies. Also, the focus of the journal seems to be more on clinical practice and research than addressing the growing concerns of the public. The only word trend of 2014 is evident for “pain.” Then in 2015, it was difficult to make conclusions because we are only halfway through the year. Though, “diabetes” is definitely a growing topic and steadily rising. Therefore, no other conclusive claims can be proven because of the available journal articles that do not relate to oral health issues.
Conclusion
Sadly, when all of the articles were uploaded through Voyant Tools in one graph, there definitely was no consistency of oral health issue word frequencies. Yet, this can be due to the fact that JADA does not allow me to view every article in an issue. This became a huge drawback of my research because only three or four articles out of every issue were free for viewing. Consequently, my research was skewed drastically because my results were dependent upon the articles I was allowed to upload. In other words, my large graph is not a great representation of the increased discussion of oral health issues throughout the journal. Contrarily, it is evident through my field notes and the smaller graphs that oral health issues greatly affect journal topics.
Graphs
Figure 1 (Voyant Tools 2011) Figure 2 (Voyant Tools 2012) Figure 3 (Voyant Tools 2013)
Figure 4 (Voyant Tools 2014) Figure 5 (Voyant Tools 2015)
Figure 6 (Voyant Tools 2011-2015)
Works Cited
American Dental Association, ed. "Home." ADA. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 July 2015. <
Figures 1-6 <voyant-tools.org>.
Journal of the American Dental Association, ed. "Main Page." JADA. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 July 2015. <