Pediatric dentistry in virtual world has significant learning potential in addition to traditional teaching

Three-dimensional virtual worlds are becoming very popular among educators in the medical field. Virtual clinics and patients are already used for case studies and role-play at both undergraduate and continuing education levels. Dental education can also take advantage of the virtual world's pedagogical features in order to allow students to interact with virtual patients (VPs) and practice treatment planning.

The objective of this study was to design and evaluate a virtual patient as a supplemental teaching tool for pediatric dentistry. A child VP, called Erietta, was created by utilizing the programming and building tools that online virtual worlds offer. The case is about an eight-year-old girl visiting the dentist with her mother for the first time. Communication techniques such as Tell-Show-Do and parents' interference management were the basic elements of the educational scenario on which the VP was based. 103 dental students made an evaluation of the simulation in their fourth year of study. Two groups were formed: an experimental group exposed to the simulation (n=52) and a control group that did not receive the simulation (n=51). At the end, both groups were asked to complete a knowledge questionnaire, and the results were compared.

Results:

A statistically significant difference between the two groups was found by applying a t-test for independent samples (P<.001), showing a positive learning effect from the VP. The majority of the participants evaluated the simulation aspects very positively, while 69% (36/52) of the simulation group expressed their preference for using this module as an additional teaching tool.

Thus, this study demonstrated that a pediatric dentistry VP built in a virtual world offers significant learning potential when used to supplement traditional teaching techniques.

Reference:

Design and Evaluation of a Simulation for Pediatric Dentistry in Virtual Worlds by Lazaros Papadopoulos et al. published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

doi:10.2196/jmir.2651