The NYU College of Dentistry has built a custom virtual reality system to train dental students on how to administer local anesthesia, comparing the integration of VR to pilots training using a flight simulator.
Traditionally, students learn to administer anesthesia by injecting each other under the supervision of faculty. By integrating VR into the curriculum, students can practice as many times as they want, boosting confidence, according to Marci Levine, DMD, MD, a clinical associate professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the university.
"The virtual reality simulation has completely replaced the way we used to train dental students to learn how to give injections," Dr. Levine told Becker's. "It's also been a wonderful opportunity for students to have the opportunity to practice globally, because it can be taken home, and it has also provided a research landscape, there are opportunities to study student impact, and overall student confidence has improved dramatically."
After completing pre-simulation coursework, students enter the VR lab, where they go through the entire process of administering an injection. Students have the opportunity to run through the simulation multiple times to gain more confidence, something that wasn't always the case previously.
"Students participate in the virtual reality simulation, which allows them to go through the series of steps required to give an injection and receive feedback," Dr. Levine said. "They can go from start to finish, where they have to assemble the instrumentation. They have to engage with a virtual patient. They have to position the patient appropriately, and then ultimately give an injection, and then assess if it worked or not. So it's a great opportunity for students to practice their skills, to refine their skills, before they even step back into the clinic."
This type of technology is currently only being used by a handful of dental schools across the country, but in the future VR could be used more widely and have more applications, Dr. Levine said.
"I could ultimately imagine a dental school having a virtual lab, and much like the flight simulator analogy, the student goes into the lab, studies by practicing in the virtual world, and then comes out, and before a patient encounter goes back into the lab or takes the equipment home," Dr. Levine said. "It becomes much more mainstream in terms of how students are learning, and it's a wonderful way to give them the confidence, the practice, the feedback and then have the opportunity to assess them as well."