Developing an All-Digital Workflow for Dental Skills Assessment: Part I, Visual Inspection Exhibits Low Precision and...

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Biomedical Engineering
• Restorative Dentistry

Background:

• Faculty visual inspection (VI) of dental student waxups is often subjective and inconsistent.
• Traditional grading rubrics lack precision in assessing dental morphology.
• There is a need for more objective and accurate assessment methods in dental education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the hypothesis that visual inspection (VI) is imprecise and inaccurate.
• To explore the development of a superior digital assessment alternative for dental waxups.
• To evaluate the precision and accuracy of both visual and digital assessment methods.

Main Methods:

• Six examiners performed visual inspection (VI) on 81 dental student waxups using a 20-item rubric.
• 67 waxups were scanned and analyzed using 3D surface comparison software.
• Examiner precision and accuracy were evaluated using digital inspection and statistical tests.

Main Results:

• Visual inspection (VI) showed low inter-examiner precision (ICC 0.332) and accuracy.
• Intra-examiner precision was also low for three examiners, indicated by statistically different mean grades.
• Independent digital evaluation by two examiners demonstrated high inter-examiner precision (ICC 0.866) and optimal accuracy.

Conclusions:

• Visual inspection (VI) of dental waxups is measurably imprecise and inaccurate.
• Digital assessment techniques offer improved visualization and more consistent, valid student evaluation.
• Digital methods facilitate optimal self-evaluation and self-correction for dental students.