Department of Surgery, Section of Dentistry, Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi, Pakistan.
Department of Surgery, Section of Dentistry, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
J Pak Med Assoc. 2024 Apr;74(4 (Supple-4)):S10-S16. doi: 10.47391/JPMA.AKU-9S-03.
To assess the knowledge and awareness of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology in dentistry.
A questionnaire survey-based study was conducted using Google forms on a sample of 273 dental healthcare professionals (DHCP) from October- November 2023, after obtaining ethical approval. A validated questionnaire, divided into three sections, was used to assess the knowledge and awareness of dental healthcare professionals on virtual and augmented reality. Section A was about demographic statistics, section B assessed knowledge and awareness regarding VR and AR and section C consisted of future acceptability of VR and AR among DHCP. The frequency of each question was reported in percentages. To assess the difference of knowledge and awareness of AR and VR among different specialties of DHCP, one-way ANOVA test was applied and in case of significant results pairwise comparison was performed by post-hoc Tukey test.
There was a statistically significant difference of knowledge (1.40 ± 0.49) among different dental healthcare professionals. On pairwise comparison, a statistically significant difference (p = ˂0.05) of knowledge and awareness of AR and VR was found among dental specialist and other dental health professionals.
A concerning lack of knowledge and awareness among dental healthcare professionals regarding AR and VR technology in dentistry was found. Interestingly, within the spectrum of specialties, dental specialists demonstrated a comparatively higher awareness than their counterparts in other specialties. Addressing barriers, notably a lack of knowledge, is crucial for successful technology adoption in dental education and practice.
评估牙科领域虚拟现实（VR）和增强现实（AR）技术的知识和认知。
2023 年 10 月至 11 月，在获得伦理批准后，我们通过谷歌表格对 273 名牙科医疗保健专业人员（DHCP）进行了基于问卷调查的研究。使用经过验证的问卷，分为三个部分，评估牙科医疗保健专业人员对虚拟和增强现实的知识和认知。A 部分是关于人口统计学统计数据，B 部分评估了 DHCP 对 VR 和 AR 的知识和认知，C 部分包括 DHCP 对 VR 和 AR 的未来可接受性。每个问题的频率以百分比报告。为了评估不同 DHCP 专业之间对 AR 和 VR 的知识和认知的差异，我们应用了单因素方差分析检验，对于有显著结果的情况，我们通过事后 Tukey 检验进行了两两比较。
不同牙科医疗保健专业人员的知识水平存在统计学显著差异（1.40 ± 0.49）。在两两比较中，牙科专家和其他牙科保健专业人员之间对 AR 和 VR 的知识和认知存在统计学显著差异（p = ˂0.05）。
我们发现牙科医疗保健专业人员对牙科领域的 AR 和 VR 技术的知识和认知存在令人担忧的缺乏。有趣的是，在专业范围内，牙科专家表现出比其他专业人员更高的意识。解决障碍，特别是知识缺乏的问题，对于成功在牙科教育和实践中采用技术至关重要。
