VIRTUAL REALITY IN DENTAL EDUCATION
Training of patient communication, manual dexterity, precision, tactility and visual-spatial perception is still essential in dental education. The methods and equipment available for dental education is in constant transition. Digital tools such as virtual reality simulators (VRS) are highly relevant in this regard. This paper gives a brief introduction to Virtual Reality as a pedagogical tool with its possibilities and limitations. VRS is a good supplement to existing tuition when the implementation is not perceived as an extra workload in an already densely packed curriculum. At present, no dental educational VRS-system can fully substitute all traditional phantom head training. The rapid development in this area indicates that we can expect more comprehensive dental VRS-units in the near future. Early introduction to dental VRS training will augment the students’ progression in manual dexterity and clinical comprehension prior to clinical practice with real patients. This will again increase the patient safety and simultaneously reduce the students’ stress level in the transition from pre-clinical to clinical practice.