Virtual Reality

VR is underutilised in clinical dental education, with very few VR apps available as an alternative method of teaching clinical procedures, scenarios and interactions with patients.

With the emergence of off the shelf VR packages which enable simple VR to be created quickly and easily, it was felt that a VR based package, would meet our requirements and offer students an opportunity to respond to complex dental scenarios in a safe, but realistic learning environment, where they can practice highly skilled tasks and interpersonal skills such as communication skills, ethics, teamwork and patient interaction.

This project saw the creation of a Virtual Reality Dental clinic project, Students are be able to navigate through the clinic, choosing which patients/scenarios to interact with and making decisions which can lead to a successful patient clinical interaction. 

In order to launch the use of VR at the Institute of Dentistry, it was decided that 2 clinical scenarios be created by senior academics - “a nervous adult patient visits the dentist” and “a nervous child visits the dentist” were created.