Kuchenbecker Katherine J, Parajon Robert C, Maggio Margrit P
From the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (K.J.K., R.C.P.), School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, and Department of Preventive and Restorative Sciences (M.P.M.), School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
Simul Healthc. 2017 Jun;12(3):148-156. doi: 10.1097/SIH.0000000000000201.
Developed to educate dental students in caries detection, the VerroTeach simulator allows dental faculty to share, record, and replay the tactile vibrations felt through a dental hand instrument. We assessed this simulation approach by asking experienced dental educators to evaluate the system's real-time and video playback modes.
VerroTeach uses an accelerometer to sense instrument vibrations and a voice coil actuator to reproduce these vibrations on another tool. Seventeen dental faculty participated in the study, first experiencing real-time mode by feeling vibrations while the experimenter touched extracted teeth. The subject then experienced vibrotactile playback of 5 prerecorded caries detection tasks and 1 prerecorded caries extraction procedure, making 10 total caries judgments and repeatedly rating the system's perceptual accuracy.
Dental educators rated caries detection as significantly more difficult for students than experienced dentists (P < 0.0001), and they rated tactile feedback as a highly important source of information for this judgment. Subjects highly rated the realism of both real-time mode and playback mode. Experienced dentists performed well on the simulator, answering most questions correctly. Interestingly, nonpracticing dentists performed significantly worse than practicing dentists on the caries judgment questions (P = 0.003). Finally, subjects strongly recommended the system for training dental students.
These positive results indicate that sharing, recording, and replaying instrument vibrations may be beneficial for teaching caries detection to dental students. Further research is planned to improve tactile feedback quality, integrate VerroTeach into the preclinical curriculum, and explore other possible applications for this approach to clinical simulation.
VerroTeach模拟器旨在培养牙科学生的龋齿检测能力，它使牙科教员能够分享、记录并回放通过牙科手持器械感受到的触觉振动。我们通过邀请经验丰富的牙科教育工作者评估该系统的实时模式和视频回放模式，对这种模拟方法进行了评估。
VerroTeach使用加速度计来感知器械振动，并使用音圈致动器在另一个工具上再现这些振动。17名牙科教员参与了这项研究，他们首先通过在实验者触摸拔除牙齿时感受振动来体验实时模式。然后，受试者体验了5个预先录制的龋齿检测任务和1个预先录制的龋齿拔除过程的振动触觉回放，总共做出10次龋齿判断，并反复对系统的感知准确性进行评分。
牙科教育工作者认为，对于学生来说，龋齿检测比经验丰富的牙医要困难得多（P < 0.0001），他们将触觉反馈视为这一判断的非常重要的信息来源。受试者对实时模式和回放模式的真实感评价都很高。经验丰富的牙医在模拟器上表现良好，大多数问题回答正确。有趣的是，在龋齿判断问题上，非执业牙医的表现明显比执业牙医差（P = 0.003）。最后，受试者强烈推荐该系统用于培训牙科学生。
这些积极结果表明，分享、记录和回放器械振动可能有助于向牙科学生教授龋齿检测。计划进一步开展研究，以提高触觉反馈质量，将VerroTeach纳入临床前课程，并探索这种临床模拟方法的其他可能应用。
