The Impact of the ITI International Team for Implantology on Implant Dentistry: A Retrospective and Descriptive Analysis of 30 Years of Research Support

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the projects submitted to the ITI International Team for Implantology for funding and the scientific publications ensuing from these projects, over a period of 30 years. Materials and Methods: This analysis was performed based on information available in the database of the ITI. For each project, data related to institution, country of origin, and grant status (financed or rejected) were extracted. For the financed projects, the grant amount and number of publications were recorded. Publications were searched independently by two investigators. For all publications, the study topic, study design, and citation number were recorded. Results: From a total of 1,372 submitted projects from 51 different countries and 308 different institutions, 514 (37.46%) were financed by the ITI. This amounts to more than CHF 52 million invested in favor of implant dentistry and related fields. A total of 552 publications (including original research and reviews) were identified related to these projects, with the majority being in vitro studies (n = 198), and the most common topic researched was implant surface modification (n = 134). The United States was the country and the University of Bern was the institution with the largest number of financed projects and published papers. Conclusion: This analysis revealed that the ITI has been actively supporting research in the field of implant dentistry and related areas globally. Several concepts in present-day implantology are based on literature from ITI-funded projects. Keywords: bibliometrics, dental implants, evidence-based dentistry, funding, implant dentistry, publications, research projects