Purpose: Citation analysis is the field of bibliometrics that uses citation data to evaluate the scientific recognition and the influential performance of a research article in the scientific community. The aim of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the top-cited articles pertaining to implant dentistry, to analyze the main characteristics, and to display the most interesting topics and evolutionary trends.
Materials and methods: The 100 top-cited articles published in "Dentistry, Oral Surgery, and Medicine" journals were identified using the Science Citation Index Database. The articles were further reviewed, and basic information was collected, including the number of citations, journals, authors, publication year, study design, level of evidence, and field of study.
Results: The highly cited articles in implant dentistry were cited between 199 and 2,229 times. The majority of them were published in four major journals: Clinical Oral Implants Research, International Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Implants, Journal of Clinical Periodontology, and Journal of Periodontology. The publication year ranged from 1981 to 2009, with 45% published in a nine-year period (2001 to 2009). Publications from the United States (29%) were the most heavily cited, followed by those from Sweden (23%) and Switzerland (17%). The University of Göteborg from Sweden produced the highest number of publications (n = 19), followed by the University of Bern in Switzerland (n = 13). There was a predominance of clinical papers (n = 42), followed by reviews (n = 25), basic science research (n = 21), and proceedings papers (n = 12). Peri-implant tissue healing and health (24%), implant success/failures (19.2%), and biomechanical topics (16.8%) were the most common fields of study.
Conclusion: Citation analysis in the field of implant dentistry reveals interesting information about the topics and trends negotiated by researchers and elucidates which characteristics are required for a paper to attain a "classic" status. Clinical science articles published in high-impact specialized journals are most likely to be cited in the field of implant dentistry.