Educational effects using a robot patient simulation system for development of clinical attitude

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of improving the attitude of dental students toward the use of a full-body patient simulation system (SIMROID) compared to the traditional mannequin (CLINSIM) for dental clinical education. Materials and methods: The participants were 10 male undergraduate dental students who had finished clinical training in the university hospital 1 year before this study started. They performed a crown preparation on an upper premolar tooth using SIMROID and CLINSIM as the practical clinical trials. The elapsed time for preparation was recorded. The taper of the abutment teeth was measured using a 3-dimensional shape-measuring device after this trial. In addition, a self-reported questionnaire was collected that included physical pain, treatment safety, and maintaining a clean area for each simulator. Qualitative data analysis of a free format report about SIMROID was performed using text-mining analysis. This trial was performed twice at 1-month intervals. Results: The students considered physical pain, treatment safety, and a clean area for SIMROID significantly better than that for CLINSIM (P < 0.01). The elapsed time of preparation in the second practical clinical trial was significantly lower than in the first for SIMROID and CLINSIM (P < 0.01). However, there were no significant differences between the abutment tapers for both systems. For the text-mining analysis, most of the students wrote that SIMROID was similar to real patients. Conclusion: The use of SIMROID was proven to be effective in improving the attitude of students toward patients, thereby giving importance to considerations for actual patients during dental treatment

Comparison between flipped classroom and team-based learning

Purpose: We previously investigated the effects of team-based learning (TBL) on fixed prosthodontic education and reported that TBL could have higher efficiency with high student satisfaction than traditional lecture. In the current report, we introduced flipped classroom to the fixed prosthodontic education and compared their effectiveness based on the final examination score in addition to TBL. Methods: Participants were forty-one students from XXXXXX University School of Dentistry who attended a fixed prosthodontics course. The first six classes adopted the flipped classroom style while the latter eight classes adopted TBL. To evaluate the relationship between learning styles and their effectiveness, we compared results from the term-end examination between the curriculum covered by flipped classroom and TBL-style classes. To draw comparisons, a referential examination with the same questions was conducted to eight faculty members who had not attended any of these classes. Results: Term-end examination results showed that TBL classes had slightly higher scores than flipped classroom classes. Referential examination results also showed higher scores for the same curriculum and no significant interaction was found between class formats and the term-end and referential examination scores. Analysis revealed no noticeable difference in the effectiveness of the class formats. Conclusion: Our previous study reported that TBL had higher efficiency than traditional style lecture. In the current study, there was no statistical difference in the examination score between flipped classroom and TBL. Therefore, we conclude that both styles are highly effective than traditional style lecture and constitute valid formats for clinical dental education