Application of three-dimensional visualized model of impacted tooth for surgical extraction in undergraduate oral experimental teaching

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of the application of a self-developed three-dimensional visualized model of impacted tooth for surgical extraction in undergraduate oral experimental teaching. Methods: Forty-one undergraduates majoring stomatology of Tongji University from 2018 [19 males and 22 females, aged (22.4±0.8) years] were enrolled and randomly divided into the conventional group and the experimental group. Students of the conventional group (21 students including 8 males and 13 females) received a teaching protocol for the surgical extraction of impacted tooth including theoretical lectures, watching operation videos, and operating on head-simulator teaching systems. Students of the experimental group (20 students including 11 males and 9 females) received an additional training of resistance assessment and surgical extraction using the three-dimensional visualized model of impacted tooth before operating on the head simulators. After class, a questionnaire survey was carried out among students, and the operation results on the head simulators were evaluated by the teacher. Results: The results of the questionnaire showed that the students in the experimental group were rated higher than those in the traditional group in terms of being able to imagine the relationship between impacted teeth and adjacent structures (U=114.00, P=0.006), avoiding damage to adjacent teeth (U=87.00, P<0.001) and inferior alveolar nerve during tooth extraction (U=111.50, P=0.006), and being more confident in clinical operations in the future (U=120.00, P=0.013). According to the evaluation results of tooth extraction on the head simulators, there was no significant difference in the operation time between the two groups (U=138.50, P=0.056). In the experimental group, 5% (1/20) caused adjacent tooth loosening and 15% (3/20) caused the excessive bone defect, which was less than those in the traditional group [38% (8/21) and 48% (10/21), respectively] (P=0.021; P=0.043). There was no significant difference in the incidence of grinding out the deep bone of impacted teeth between the two groups (P=0.232). Conclusions: The application of three-dimensional visualized model of impacted tooth for surgical extraction in undergraduate oral experimental teaching had achieved good results and was worth popularizing.