Advantages and disadvantages of digital technologies in dental medicine education

Digital technologies have begun their journey in dentistry in recent years. Thanks to this development, clinical practices and laboratory techniques are moving to digital processes. The merging of these digital puzzles into one whole is the logical continuum of this trend - the creation of a 3D virtual patient. In the context of medical education, the virtual patient is defined as an interactive computer simulation of a real-life clinical scenario for the purpose of teaching, learning and evaluation. This review is limited to one area of e-learning in dentistry. It is a fact that few studies have been published as to compare the effectiveness of new virtual and augmented reality systems in dental education. Advanced simulation technology shows the potential to improve training methods and quality. With the widespread adoption and integration of these technologies into the curriculum, students can achieve a higher level of competence before embarking on a clinical practice. Scientific researches will continue to offer a variety of technologies and effective treatments. To take full advantage of modern science, new knowledge and technology must be incorporated into the core of dental education. The aim of this study is to present the advantages and disadvantages of digital technologies and virtual simulators in dental education

Development of a Haptic Training Simulation for the Administration of Dental Anaesthesia based upon Accurate Anatomical Data

In the dental curriculum, the initial administration of local anaesthesia injection on live patients is critical and students may experience a high degree of anxiety. Low self-confidence often caused by insufficient knowledge of anatomy has been repeatedly reported as one of the major causes. In this paper, we focus on the development of a haptic training system based upon an accurate anatomical model, which aims to encourage self-paced learning of the practical skills that are required in such procedures and to increase students’ self-confidence. We first present the workflow we have considered to develop an accurate anatomical model of the human head and neck and introduce a Virtual Reality-based application commissioned by NHS Education for Scotland to support the learning of the anatomy in a safe and repeatable manner. Finally, we describe the functionalities of the haptic training system and discuss further developments with regard to existing research outcomes

Puesta en valor de un simulador de entrenamiento mediante la incorporación de experiencia inmersiva y analíticas de aprendizaje

Los simuladores de entrenamiento son utilizados para generar entornos simulados que imitan la realidad en mayor o menor medida, a través de los cuales los usuarios pueden entrenar distintas habilidades y adquirir nuevos conocimientos. De esta manera, posibilita capacitar sin incurrir en costos operativos y sin los riesgos inherentes del escenario real. Pero la evaluación del aprendizaje y de las habilidades adquiridas durante la simulación está lejos de ser sencilla y pide métodos y modelos adicionales que produzcan evaluaciones válidas y evidencias de aprendizaje, lo que requiere datos adicionales de los aprendices. En este marco, se ha propuesto llevar a cabo la puesta en valor de un simulador de entrenamiento para el uso de artillería antiaérea, incorporando mejoras en la simulación para aumentar la experiencia inmersiva, conjuntamente con la medición de datos y presentación de informes. Este sistema deberá inspeccionar cómo interactúa cada aprendiz con el simulador, almacenando información detallada y generando informes sobre las interacciones y los cambios en el estado interno de la simulación para un análisis posterior. De esta manera, permitirá al instructor evaluar objetivamente el desempeño del aprendiz, además de poder medir su progreso a lo largo de las sesiones de entrenamiento.Eje: Tecnología informática aplicada en educación.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informátic

Simuladores hápticos: Una herramienta para la educación odontológica en tiempos de COVID-19

Hoy en día, una nueva pandemia conocida como la COVID-19 ha venido a alterar la vida normal de todas las personas. Esta situación no evita paralizar el dictado de clases en diferentes universidades del mundo, incluidos los países en vías de desarrollo. Por ello, el presente artículo tiene como objetivo determinar la importancia del uso de la simulación háptica como herramienta didáctica en el logro de competencias en estudiantes y docentes universitarios de pregrado a nivel mundial. La metodología empleada fue Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA). Al respecto, se realizó una cadena de búsqueda: “haptic, AND simulator, AND education, AND teaching, AND dental” en bases de datos como Scopus y Google Académico. De un total de 41 artículos identificados, llegaron 18 a la fase final de PRISMA, considerando por ello que es una investigación exploratoria en el área de la odontología

Comparative evaluation of dental haptic simulators and their applications in pediatric dentistry- a scoping review

BACKGROUND: Almost all fields of dentistry are very reliant on dentists’ well-developed dexterity and psychomotor skills. Simulation preclinical dental training is important for dental students to acquire preliminary manual dexterity before interacting with real patients. In the recent years, virtual reality specifically haptic simulations have drawn a lot of attention due to their multiple advantages including lack of the threat of spreading air-borne diseases. PURPOSE: The overall purpose of this study was to provide a review of the available dental haptic simulators in the market, and specific aim was to report the available evidence from the current scientific literature about the use and benefit of them during early preclinical pediatric dentistry training. METHODS: Information about Haptic VR simulators was obtained through manufacturers’ websites and current scientific literature. For the specific aim, the review is reported using the PRISMA-Scoping Review (ScR) guidelines and bibliographic databases such as PubMed, Cochrane library, Embase, and Dentistry and Oral Sciences Source. RESULTS: The systematic search identified 79 titles of which 14 full-text articles were selected for detailed review. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria 4 studies were included in this review. CONCLUSION: Evaluation evidence from reviewed studies indicates the usefulness of the haptic simulators in preclinical pediatric dental training. The haptic simulators complement the existing phantom head simulators by offering different beneficial features. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the simulators in pediatric dental training and to support the current availability of evidence

Monitoring Physiological Reactions of Construction Workers in Virtual Environment: A Feasibility Study Using Affective Sensing Technology

This research aims to monitor workers’ physiological reactions in virtual construction scenario. With the objective of leveraging affective sensing technology in construction scenario, experiments with Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) was conducted in a 3D simulation developed based on a real construction site. The GSR results obtained from sensor were analyzed in order (i) to assess the feasibility of using virtual environment to generate real emotions, (ii) to examine the relation between questionnaires used to ask people about their experience and their physiological responses and (iii) to identify the factors that affect people’s emotional reactions in virtual environment. Subjects of the experimental group exhibited incoherent responses, as expected in experiments with human subjects. Based on the various reasons for this incoherence obtained from questionnaire part of the experiment, the potential in research for developing training methods with respect to workers’ physiological response capability was identified

Autoestereoscopía en dispositivos móviles para facilitar el aprendizaje

[EN] Autostereoscopy is a technique for three-dimensional visualization that allows the user to perceive the sensation of depth of objects without needing to wear glasses or other devices. The major effort has focused on screens of 15 inches or greater. There are very few mobile devices that incorporate autoestereoscopía. In this thesis, we used a mobile autostereoscopic, LG Optimus 3D. Three-dimensional models are important when learning content is very difficult to acquire from 2D images or other traditional learning methods. If three-dimensional models are joined by three-dimensional visualization, we hypothesize that this binding facilitates learning. This thesis focuses on the dental learning. Specifically, it has been developed and validated an application to learning the dental morphology. The application has been validated with students of dental specialties[ES] La autoestereoscopía es una técnica de visualización tridimensional que permite al usuario percibir la sensación de profundidad de los objetos sin necesitad de llevar gafas o cualquier otro dispositivos. El esfuerzo mayoritario se ha centrado en pantallas de 15 pulgadas o superiores. Existen muy pocos dispositivos móviles que incorporen autoestereoscopía. En esta tesina, se ha utilizado un dispositivo móvil autoestereoscópico, LG Optimus 3D. Los modelos tridimensionales son importantes cuando el contenido de aprendizaje es muy difícil de adquirir a partir de imágenes 2D u otros métodos tradicionales de aprendizaje. Si a los modelos tridimensionales se les une la visualización tridimensional, nuestra hipótesis es que esta unión facilita el aprendizaje. La presente tesina se centra en el aprendizaje dental. Concretamente, se ha desarrollado y validado una aplicación que permite el aprendizaje de la morfología dental. La aplicación se ha validado con estudiantes de especialidades dentalesCarrasco Torres, C. (2014). Autoestereoscopía en dispositivos móviles para facilitar el aprendizaje. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/49125Archivo delegad

A scoping review of the use and application of virtual reality in pre-clinical dental education

Introduction Virtual reality (VR) is gaining recognition as a valuable tool for training dental students and its use by dental schools around the world is growing. It is timely to review the literature relating to the use of VR in dental education, in order to ensure that educators are well-informed of current areas of inquiry, and those requiring further investigation, to enable appropriate decisions about whether to employ VR as a teaching tool. Method A scoping review using the method outlined by Arksey and O'Malley was conducted. Both Web of Science and ERIC databases were searched. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established to filter results. The data were collected and categorised using a custom data collection spreadsheet. Results The review identified 68 relevant articles. Following review, four educational thematic areas relating to the 'simulation hardware', the 'realism of the simulation', 'scoring systems' and 'validation' of the systems emerged. Conclusion This paper summarises and draws out themes from the current areas of inquiry in the literature, uncovering a number of weaknesses and assumptions. It recommends areas where additional investigation is required in order to form a better evidence base for the utility of VR in dental education, as well as to inform its future development