Practising dental work using VR

DENTISTRY students at Australia's University of Newcastle (UoN) can practise administering dental injections in a virtual environment before they take on real-life patients, thanks to ground-breaking virtual reality (VR) technology.

The system is a world first for the field and was devised at UoN by oral health lecturer Denise Higgins, who explained that previously, students would go straight from lectures, to practising on each other, and then patients.

“From listening to student feedback over the years, I knew they felt they were missing something between the theory and practising on their peers and patients,” Xinhua news agency quoted Higgins as saying.

“Administering anaesthetic needles is an incredibly intricate process, and not something many feel confident doing without extensive practice.” As well as innovating with VR, Higgins has also developed lifelike dummies for students to practise on, experimenting with materials until she found the right mix to replicate a human mouth.

“The material is made of salt, water and fibre, which makes a material similar to the lining inside the mouth.

“I developed my idea from proof of concept, to playdough model, to design document and was able to collaborate with a company which brought it to life.

“To our knowledge, nothing of its kind exists in the same format we have here - the whole process has revolutionised our teaching and has been incredibly rewarding,” she said.

UoN innovation team manager Craig Williams said the virtual anaesthesia programme was developed to imitate real-world situations that students would face in the workplace.

“Simulation is a wonderful teaching resource as students can participate in a controlled, standardised and safe environment.

“We hope the tool will be useful on a global scale and may eventually apply to anyone working in the field,” said Williams. — Bernama