3D Printing in Dental Education: A Review of Its Use across Disciplines

Dental education aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills required to competently manage clinical scenarios. It is critical that dental education evolves with technological advances to ensure quality student preparation. New technologies such as three-dimensional printing (3DP) have found their way into dental education and could overcome the limitations of traditional methods. The question arises: Is 3DP suitable to replace the current conventional educational modalities in preclinical dental education?

A review of the current literature was conducted in September 2024 to identify the use of 3DP models in various dental disciplines for predoctoral education. The outcomes of the retrieved records were analyzed as subjective measurements or objective assessments by the participants.

The initial search yielded 776 articles, of which 24 studies were eventually considered for qualitative synthesis. The dental disciplines in which 3DP was used in preclinical education were operative dentistry, prosthodontics, endodontics, maxillofacial surgery, and pediatric dentistry, with a maximum of seven studies in operative dentistry and a minimum of one in pediatric dentistry. In all studies, 3DP models were used in comparison to conventional typodonts, human-extracted teeth, cadaver models, or virtual reality simulators, as dictated by the university's curriculum.

3DP models can benefit preclinical education by creating different case scenarios that resemble real-life situations. They also offer greater availability and cost-effectiveness. However, further research and material development is needed to improve the tactile sensation of the models to better resemble dental tissues.