Measurement of Manual Dexterity Utilising VR Haptic Simulators

In dental education, measuring manual dexterity is an ongoing challenge. This study aims to quantitatively differentiate the manual dexterity skills between pre-dental students and senior dental students by utilising a virtual reality haptic simulator. It is assumed that with increased training, senior dental students will demonstrate greater manual dexterity compared to those without dental training.

Approval for this study was granted by the Institutional Review Board at Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry (IRB Study # 31300-001). Two groups were compared to investigate manual dexterity abilities using the SimToCare Dente Virtual Reality Haptic Simulator. The first group comprised 30 pre-dental students who had not yet matriculated into dental school. The second group consisted of 30 senior dental students in their final year of receiving their dental degree. Both groups were instructed to virtually prepare a pre-designed cavity in the shape of a cross on a virtual ivorene block. The haptic simulator recorded parameters to evaluate the accuracy and errors of the preparations. An overall score was generated for each trial, and the average for each group was calculated to measure manual dexterity. It was hypothesised that a significant difference in preparation statistics would be observed between the senior and pre-dental students across three trials, with the difference widening between the first and subsequent trials and eventually plateauing, resulting in a logarithmic growth graph for both groups.

The pre-dental students did not show a significant increase in their scores across the three trials, unlike the senior students. Furthermore, the senior students achieved significantly higher overall scores in the second and third trials compared to the pre-dental participants.

The study demonstrates a significant difference in manual dexterity, as measured by SimToCare haptic simulators, between pre-dental and senior dental students. The SimToCare Haptic Simulator can be an effective tool for quantifying manual dexterity. Further research is necessary to develop an educational workflow for integrating haptic simulators into the digital dentistry education curriculum.