Comparison of virtual reality and conventional teaching in dental education: A randomized study

Dental education is being revolutionized by inclusion of novel technologies such as virtual reality (VR). This technology is gradually becoming part of training program for dental professionals as well as students. The present study aimed to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of VR based education and conventional teaching methods in dental education.

This was a randomized, interventional, and comparative study conducted on 200 dental undergraduate students studying in Dental teaching Hospital and college. The study purpose was explained to all students in English and/or their native language. Determination of sample size was done by using the "Stata" software (version 12) at 95% confidence level and 80% power. The students were enrolled using census method and the selected study participants were randomly categorized in 2 groups comprising of 100 students each (a) Group A students trained with VR and (b) Group B students trained using traditional training method. Study investigator responsible for allocation of sample was blinded by coding. The data collection was performed in two phases wherein 1^st phase included designing of an environment based on VR while 2^nd phase comprised of implementation and collection of data. "Multi-view" video capture method was used for implementing VR based training system. The observed data analysis was done by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS v. 19.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) software.

Mean ± standard deviation (SD) age of students was observed as 22.92 ± 0.64 years. Mean ± SD student satisfaction score from virtual training method (Group A) was found to be 91.02 ± 7.8 whereas in group B (traditional teaching program), it was found to be 65.02 ± 0.35 which was statistically significant (P = 0.01). No statistically significant difference was obtained on comparing understanding and level of comprehension between both the study groups (P = 0.23).

VR based dental teaching and clinical training program demonstrated higher satisfaction in comparison to traditional teaching method.