The Faculty of Dentistry goes digital!

The Faculty of Dentistry is experimenting with practical training for its students on virtual simulators. This innovative system is virtually unique in France.

In September 2018, virtual reality made its debut at the Faculty of Dentistry. Five haptic simulators[1] - among the very first in France - were inaugurated as part of the restoration of two practical rooms. A historic first step towards the dematerialization of training for oral medicine students. "Working on a simulator enables students to fine-tune their technical skills. It also enables them to acquire the same skills as working on resin teeth, but in a more ecological and cost-effective way", explained Jean Valcarcel, Dean of the Faculty, recently.

Customizable training

Ivan Panayotov and Bruno Picart, who are responsible for training students in the use of these new machines, now offer students the opportunity to train, evaluate and progress on these simulators with complete peace of mind. During free one-hour sessions, each student is allocated a machine on which to perform a series of manual dexterity exercises.

"The student chooses the type of exercise and instruments required. He then proceeds to excavate the carious tissues, during which phase the virtual reality simulator enables him to visualize all his movements on a screen and - above all - to physically feel the difference in the resistance of dental tissues (caries, enamel, dentin) to drilling! The simulator exercises enable the students to work in conditions close to those in which they actually work on patients, and to improve their manual dexterity in direct vision and, above all, in indirect vision (with a mirror)", explains Ivan Panayotov, along with his colleagues Bruno Picart, Sofia Dubois and Marie Ceccotti, who observe and evaluate live, during each session, the work carried out simultaneously by the students working on the machines (precision, speed of gestures, quality of therapeutic treatments carried out). A grade is awarded at the end of each session, allowing us to see how much each student has improved from one week to the next.

"In the end, working conditions on a haptic simulator are fairly close to reality, but not identical. For example, neither saliva nor patients' breathing movements are reproduced by the machines. Likewise, vision on the 3D screen is not partially obstructed by the cheeks or tongue, as is the case in the real world", says a former user who, like all those who have tried their hand at it, sees these new machines as a fantastic training complement, particularly for students in pre-clinical training (the phase of learning and perfecting handling techniques in dentistry).

The subject of an internal satisfaction survey last spring, the new virtual reality simulators acquired by the faculty are now the subject of a broad consensus among students and teaching staff alike. Very recently, their use became a natural part of the assessment curriculum for 2nd and 3rd year students. At the Faculty of Dentistry, computer-based training for students is now well and truly underway.

[1]Concerning the sense of touch

A student's view of the Faculty of Dentistry

Marie Teyssier, 24, 6th year odontology student

"After graduating from PACES with a high ranking, I decided to go into dentistry after a practical placement in a private practice. I was one of the first students to try out the faculty's new simulators. I was able to evaluate and improve my manual dexterity through five series of training sessions, including milling in indirect vision, a work technique particularly dreaded by students!

Key figures

  • 67 teacher-researchers ;
  • 141 undergraduate students ;
  • 145 master's students ;
  • 125 students in the 2-year 3rd cycle ;
  • 241 students on a 3 or 4-year 3rd cycle course.

Digital technology for clinical dentistry

As early as 2007, CAD/CAM[1] made its debut at the dental center, under the responsibility of Philipe Gibert, to offer patients optical impressions for the design, computer-aided on-site fabrication and fitting of ceramic dental prostheses in a single appointment. The integration of digital technology into dental care protocols was gradually extended, culminating in 2015 with the creation of France's first dental CAD/CAM application unit. " Jean Valcarcel, dean of the faculty, and Sylvie Montal, head of the department, aim to extend the use of digital resources to all departments at the clinic and, of course, to teach upstream, at faculty level, the theoretical mastery of these new techniques, which are unquestionably the fastest, most precise and most efficient known today", explains Michel Fages, head of the "CAD/CAM Prosthetics" medical activity unit at the CHU.

[1 ] Computer-aided design and manufacturing