Molecular, Cellular and Pharmaceutical Aspects of Biomaterials in Dentistry and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. An Internationalization of Higher Education and Research Perspective.

In dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery, the development of implantable biomaterials and the understanding of their molecular, cellular and pharmaceutical aspects are currently major fields of research and education, with a considerable impact on the daily clinical practice and the evolution of therapeutic strategies. In the era of globalized economy of knowledge and science, this scientific domain needs the development of global cooperation and a paradigm evolution in the organizational culture of the dental sciences and related dental industry. Despite political pressure and theoretical efforts, the internationalization of higher education and research today in dentistry and biomaterials remains in general quite superficial and mostly dependent on the efforts of a few leaders of internationalization working through their personal networks, as it was assessed through the FAST scores (Fast Assessment Screening Test) calculated in various dental schools and groups worldwide through the ISAIAS program (Intercultural Sensitivity Academic Index & Advanced Standards). Cooperation in a multipolar multicultural community requires the development of strong intercultural competences, and this process remains limited in most institutions. These limits of international scientific cooperation can be observed through different markers, particularly the difficult and limited production of ISO standards (International Organization for Standardization) and the relatively low SCIENTI scores (Scientific Cooperation Internationalization Effort & Network Test & Index) of the specialized dental literature, particularly in comparison to the most significant medical literature. However, as an analytical tool to assess the scientific international cooperation effort between fields and periods, the SCIENTI screening system also highlighted a significant increase of the internationalization effort in the last years in the best dental biomaterials publications. Finally, an internationalization of higher education and research perspective is a very important approach to assess the evolution of the dental biomaterial science and highlights very clearly the future endeavors of this field, particularly the impact and interferences of private entities and companies in the development of this corpus of knowledge. It also reveals that the concept of independent not-for-profit Cooperation Internationalization Effort Literature (CIEL), in the various informal forms that can be found worldwide around diverse leaderships, is the best perspective for a better science and understanding of molecular, cellular and pharmaceutical aspects of biomaterials in dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery.