Evaluation of Simodont® haptic 3D virtual reality dental training simulator

Background: Haptic dental simulators are relatively new tools with a promising future in dental education. The majority of these devices are in the early stages of development with no extended evaluations of their usage, benefits and limitations. Aims and Objectives: To assess the perception of academic staff members of the realism of the Simodont® haptic 3D-VR dental trainer. Materials and Method: Eleven full-time academic staff from the School of Dentistry and Oral Health--Griffith University (Australia) participated in this study through completion of psychomotor exercises available on the Simodont® dental trainer and pre- and post-evaluation questionnaires. Results: Academic staff members were neutral with regards to their expectations about the Simodont® pre-evaluation. Post-evaluation, they noted the educational benefits of the E-lessons loaded on the Simodont® but also raised concerns regarding perceived technical limitations of the hardware and software at this time. The majority agreed that automated feedback provided by Simodont® dental trainer could not totally replace traditional preclinical training methods but could be used as a valuable supplementary tool for student self-evaluation. Conclusion: The benefits of the Simodont® dental trainer were noted by academic staff members but further research was deemed necessary to compare the benefits of its Haptic 3D-VR technology against other dental simulators in the market. Keywords: Dental simulators; Dental education; Preclinical training.