VOXEL-MAN Dental
Dental Training, Next Level.
VOXEL-MAN Dental is a new kind of dental simulator, based on virtual reality technology. Students are working on simulated patient cases with a look and feel close to a real procedure, training both their manual dexterity and problem solving skills. With its striking new features, VOXEL-MAN Dental greatly improves quality and cost-effectiveness in pre-clinical training—and beyond.
Dental Training
At present, pre-clinical dental training is mostly based on drilling plastic teeth. Unfortunately, these are made all of one material, making it impossible for a dental student to develop a realistic feel for the different dental tissues. Even worse, the teeth usually have no pathologies, such that training is limited to standard preparations. An objective assessment of the student's skills and progress is hardly possible.
See and Feel the Difference
Instruments are controlled using force feedback devices.
In VOXEL-MAN Dental, teeth and instruments are modeled in high resolution inside a computer and visualized on a 3D screen. The dental handpiece is represented by a force feedback device which can be moved in three dimensions and provides a very life-like sense of touch. With VOXEL-MAN Dental, you can actually feel the subtle differences between enamel, dentin, pulp, or carious tissue.
Instruments provided include a selection of high and low speed burs of different shapes which are controlled by a foot pedal, as well as a dental mirror. At any time, teeth may be inspected from all sides, magnified as desired, and even shown as cross-sectional images. The high resolution tooth models have been derived from real teeth by microtomography.
Problem-Based Training
Three example tasks with reference preparations.
VOXEL-MAN Dental is fully integrated with a dental curriculum. The dental models include carious lesions at various locations, such as mesial, occlusal, and distal tooth decay. Students thus work on realistic cases, including development of a treatment plan and removal of caries, long before they see their first real patient. This approach provides a major step ahead from prescribed standard preparations to problem-based training, bridging the gap between theory and practice. All procedures can be practiced as often as needed, with no costs for disposable parts. As all students undergo standardized training procedures, results are comparable.
Student preparation with visual feedback showing where the preparation was too deep (red) or too shallow (blue).
Skills Assessment
As a step further, VOXEL-MAN Dental also includes an automatic skills assessment. Both process and result of a student preparation can be evaluated objectively, based on predefined standards such as a reference preparation of a cavity or a crown. Hence, students get immediate feedback on their work, progress over time can be monitored, and instructors have more time available for more interesting questions.
The automatic skills assessment also allows for a great deal of additional self study, reducing the demand for supervision.
Prototype of VOXEL-MAN Dental
Setup
VOXEL-MAN Dental is a compact unit that comes as a tabletop system, standalone system, or attached to a conventional dental training unit.
Benefits
Quality of Training
- Training of both manual dexterity and problem solving skills
- Cavity preparation
- Carious lesions
- Immediate feedback
- Objective evaluation of student performance (skills assessment)
- Problem-based training
- Possibility for self-study
Costs
- Reduced need for supervision
- No disposable parts
- No need for water, pressurized air, disinfectant, etc.
Features
- 3D display with 3D glasses
- Industry-leading image quality
- High resolution tooth models derived from real teeth by microtomography
- Drilling with realistic haptic feedback (patent pending)
- Additional cross-sectional images
- High and low speed burs with matching haptics and sound
- Dental mirror
- Foot pedal
- Compact unit
- Comes as tabletop system, standalone system, or attached to conventional dental training unit
Availability
VOXEL-MAN Dental will be available in 2011.
Development is supported by an EXIST-Transfer of Research grant of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi).
Contact
For more information, please contact info@voxel-man.de