Local anesthesia is a core technique in the context of clinical education. Current dental simulation systems for local anesthesia provide little or no feedback to the practitioner and are expensive to acquire and maintain. In 2022 the NYU College of Dentistry designed and developed a virtual reality simulation system that was successfully rolled out to 400 students. This immersive VR-based simulation system provides real-time feedback through text, visuals, audio and haptics in a unique way for each individual user. In this program you will see a live demonstration of this system, assess its strengths, and learn about the students’ experience.
Learning Objectives:
Describe alternative ways of assessing competency of dental students in local anesthesia.
Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating virtual reality simulation into dental education.
Assess the feasibility of a VR-based simulation to serve as a training platform in preclinical dental education.
