The dentist chair may soon be less daunting, with a new simulation technology at the University of Newcastle providing students with the opportunity to practice administering dental injections in a virtual environment.
The initiative, a collaboration between the University's IT Services Innovation Team and the School of Health Sciences, hopes to bridge the gap between the classroom and the clinic to ensure students are confident and capable when administering dental injections.
Utilising an Oculus headset, the wearer is transported to a virtual clinic, where a patient awaits a procedure.
A range of scenarios can be accessed by the student, including procedures requiring palatal injections to the roof of the mouth and interdental injections between the teeth. The program assists the student showing target points as well as a virtual gauge displaying the millilitres being administered.
UON Lecturer in Oral Health and Simulation Coordinator Denise Higgins said the program aims to bridge the gap between the classroom and the clinic.
"The students have the ability to start the simulation, so in this case, the virtual reality program and its scenario and they can stop, they can have a look at where they are up to, look at the statistics the program is giving back to them and then they can restart that program again.
"After using the simulation the students are much more confident to work on patients. They are then able to perform the skills at a level that is safer for patients who come to the clinic and then of course when they graduate, and they are registered practitioners, they are much more employable because they have done this task and have demonstrated that they are able to do it in a confident manner and a safe manner," Ms Higgins said.
