Title of project: ReD-VRs: Web3D Solution to Assist Restorative Dentistry Learning and Training
Researchers: Nur Fadziana Faisal Mohamed, Assoc. Prof. Abdul Nasir Zulkifli & Prof. Dr. Douglas Alwyn Luke
A revolution is taking place in dental education with the introduction of Virtual Reality (VR) simulator that lets students study and practice in cyberspace. The demand for new learning and training method has increased in order to cope with the development of dental technology as well as changing of oral disease patterns. These issues have masterminded the idea of creating an interactive, low cost, portable and experiential dental learning environment. We provide our solution in a form of Web3D, a fusion between virtual environment and the Web page that allows the user to navigate in real time. The environment created is targeted for dental students and dental surgery assistants (DSA) to practise and perfect their procedural skills in restorative dentistry. To serve this purpose, a functional prototype named ReD-VRs has been developed.
As a case study, this research focuses on Class I restorations to repair teeth affected by carious lesions. Essentially, any procedure that repairs carious, fractured, worn, lost and missing teeth falls under the restorative dentistry discipline. The learning materials were designed in a way that allows users to learn interactively and perform a self-directed learning activity. The learning materials are divided into three parts:
1)Introduction to the dental instruments
2)Introduction to the physical structure of the tooth
3)Class I restoration procedure
– Demonstration mode
- Training mode
ReD-VRs only requires development on a desktop-based virtual environment. The desktop computer has a niche for an inexpensive, but functional system which has an intuitive user interface. ReD-VRs allows the user to experience and practise the dental procedure, allows visualisation and manipulation of the three dimensional environment from various viewpoints, and the testing of their knowledge on the procedural tasks and tool selection to complete the chosen application. The simple interface on a familiar web browser allows learning without imposing too much cognitive load. It is hoped that this research is able to open up new corridors for incorporating virtual environment as an added instrument in teaching restorative dentistry.
For more information, please contact Nur Fadziana Faisal Mohamed at [email protected]
