Public Funding for Healthcare Learning Ltd

Immersive Virtual Reality Environment for Dental Training

Dental surgery is a complicated and dextrous skill which requires significant training and practice. Lack of effective training combined with time pressures and unrealistic targets on dentists leads to surgical complications and unsatisfied patients. Virtual reality (VR) has shown great potential in the field of dentistry as it provides a low cost approach for dental surgery simulation/training. A few UK universities currently use VR for dental training however CURRENT technologies are limited; they cannot be used online, so students must still travel to the venue for training; and they follow traditional training procedures failing to exploit the potential of gamification to motivate students. To address the need for improved VR training solutions, Healthcare Learning Limited (HCL) will deliver a remote learning solution for Restorative & Aesthetic Dentistry (RAD) students (appropriate for any MSc or BSc covering aspects of RAD). The technology will improve on state of the art, by embedding VR content into course material which is designed specifically for remote learning and can be delivered to students in any location using low cost consumer electronics (VR headsets costing £15-£30 are compatible with Smartphones ~£100). This will significantly extend the ‘population’ of dentists globally who are able to benefit from the education ; help standardise and raise the quality of training; and help expose students to a wider range of treatment issues, more efficiently. In addition, the will exploit gamification concepts in course material thus improving student productivity by giving extra motivation.