The Role of VR-Haptic Trainers in Dental Education. Proceedings from the First International VR-Haptic Thinkers Meetup Held in Kuopio, Finland

Accurate dental processes require in-depth understanding of the patient-specific oral structures and planning of treatments. Together with the traditional phantom head simulation, supplementary haptics-enhanced virtual reality (VR-haptic) training is increasingly becoming a part of dental clinical education [1-5]. Adaptation of three-dimensional (3D) patient-specific models within an educational VR environment in preclinical and clinical care has demonstrated a reduction in early-operator learning curve in various medical specialties [6]. Haptic technology, though expensive, is especially interesting during early dental manual skill training, as several different modes and models can be run in one device [7-9]. VR-haptic dental training has the potential to improve the education of dental students with little to no experience in tooth preparation as it significantly increases the level of new students’ basic technical skills and confidence [10]. More experienced personnel might also find it useful in maintaining their touch.

Although VR-haptic training will likely become more and more important for practicing different case-specific tooth preparations, phantom head simulation laboratory sessions and clinical training with patients should remain an integral part of dental education. As with any new teaching method, the infusion of VR-haptic training into dental curricula requires careful planning. Evaluation and discussion on its implementation can be enabled via research and conferences such as the VR-Haptic Thinkers Meetup. Sufficient time and resources must be invested. VR-haptic training could ultimately enable less expensive and more effective dental education by reducing the amount of direct contact hours required from the educators while offering a freer, less stressful training environment for the students.

We were pleased to find that the Institute of Dentistry, University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Kuopio, was an appealing host, as our one-day free to join meetup was able to attract over 200 registered attendees from around the world. There were seven highly recognized invited speakers, and their lectures included topics such as basic training with VR-haptics via patient-specific VR-haptic dental exercises and postgraduate training, efficiency, experience, and innovations (https://middle-of-knowhere. com/#comp-18b898195d6). They were all passionate about improving dental education with this new digital technology. In the same vein, the VR-haptics community gathered both at Kuopio as well as online to network, learn, collaborate, and socialize.

Educators and professionals with training and expertise in different fields of dentistry were called to join and our multidisciplinary meetup gave them opportunity for interaction and learning. It should be emphasized that the consideration of the potential benefits of VR-haptic training is important not only in dentistry, but in every branch of medicine, especially surgery, where great manual dexterity is required. Organizing this meetup helped identify potential curriculum plans for improved health education with the support of VR-haptics. We provided a safe space for educators to share their experiences on all aspects of the VRhaptics life cycle from specification of need, procurement, and everyday use.

Finally, we’ll take the liberty to thank our leading sponsors (Dentsply; Kuraray Noritake; Planmeca; Simodont by Nissin; Zirkonzahn) for their financial contributions, which were vital to our vision of organizing a free to join meetup. We would also like to thank all the meetup organizers at the Institute of Dentistry, UEF, for their help in ensuring the smooth running of the meeting. We also thank Arizona Wilson and the team from the Online Journal of Dentistry & Oral Health (OJDOH).

The lectures of the VR-Haptic Thinkers Meetup were recorded and can be provided upon request. Please email szabolcs.felszeghy@ uef.fi for more information.

The VR-haptic Thinkers express gratitude for American Dental Education Association (ADEA; https://adea.org/) and Association for Dental Education in Europe (adee; https://adee.org/) generosity and their support!

No conflict of interest.

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3. Mirghani I, et al. (2018) Capturing differences in dental training using a virtual reality simulator. Eur J Dent Educ 22(1): 67-71.
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