Performance of Dental Students Versus Prosthodontics Residents on a 3D Immersive Haptic Simulator

Abstract

This study evaluated the performance of dental students versus prosthodontics residents on a simulated caries removal exercise using a newly designed, 3D immersive haptic simulator. The intent of this study was to provide an initial assessment of the simulator's construct validity, which in the context of this experiment was defined as its ability to detect a statistically significant performance difference between novice dental students (n=12) and experienced prosthodontics residents (n=14). Both groups received equivalent calibration training on the simulator and repeated the same caries removal exercise three times. Novice and experienced subjects’ average performance differed significantly on the caries removal exercise with respect to the percentage of carious lesion removed and volume of surrounding sound tooth structure removed (p<0.05). Experienced subjects removed a greater portion of the carious lesion, but also a greater volume of the surrounding tooth structure. Efficiency, defined as percentage of carious lesion removed over drilling time, improved significantly over the course of the experiment for both novice and experienced subjects (p<0.001). Within the limitations of this study, experienced subjects removed a greater portion of carious lesion on a 3D immersive haptic simulator. These results are a first step in establishing the validity of this device.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2014
Source ID
10.1002/j.0022-0337.2014.78.4.tb05715.x

Entities

People

  • Abdulmonem A. Alshihri
  • Elizabeth J. Eve
  • Jeremy Cormier
  • Maria Kozhenikov
  • Nadeem Y. Karimbux
  • R. Bruce Donoff
  • Samuel Koo

Organizations

  • Harvard Medical School
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine
  • Office of Naval Research
  • Tufts University

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

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