Teaching Dental Students Paediatric Behaviour Guidance With Virtual Reality: A Three-Year Study

The aim was to evaluate the use of low-cost virtual reality (VR) simulation on teaching behaviour guidance of paediatric dental patients in multiple cohorts of dental students.

This cohort study recruited third-year dental students from three consecutive years (2021-2023). The intervention was a validated VR scenario used in a previous pilot. The students were evaluated at three phases: preintervention (baseline), postintervention, and postclinical (3 months after intervention). Demographics, impact of the VR intervention, empathy score, and self-perceived ability and comfort of managing paediatric dental patients were collected and analysed.

The study recruited 181 dental students. 96% agreed that the VR intervention helped them better empathise with children. Most agreed that it made them more comfortable communicating (75%) and more confident interacting (82%) with children. Objective empathy scores significantly increased from preintervention to postintervention (110.50 ± 11.12 vs. 114.94 ± 11.55, p = 0.002) and remained unchanged at postclinical phase (112.17 ± 11.41). Additionally, students perceived themselves to be significantly more confident at communicating with children (5.61 ± 1.88 vs. 6.33 ± 1.74, p < 0.001), at interacting with children (5.83 ± 1.97 vs. 6.41 ± 1.70, p = 0.014), and performing dental procedures on children (4.44 ± 1.73 vs. 5.37 ± 1.71, p < 0.001) postintervention and remained elevated postclinical, suggesting better clinical performance when managing paediatric dental patients.

VR simulation was effective as an adjunct for the teaching of behaviour guidance of paediatric dental patients to dental students. The intervention was well received and improved both objective and subjective outcomes.