Proposal of Educational Models and a Simulation Program for Learning Piezosurgery in Stomatology, Implantology and Maxillofacial Surgery

Abstract

Background and Objective: The acquisition of technical skills, using piezosurgery devices, would be facilitated by simulation on educational models. This study aims to disseminate a simulation program and propose educational models of animal origin enabling progressive achievement of psychomotor skills in learning piezosurgical procedures. Material: As part of the national continuing education program in stomatology, implantology, and maxillofacial surgery that we founded and have been leading since 2015, seven procedural simulation sessions for piezosurgery training were realized. The simulation program included two steps: first, specific tasks carried out on a sheep's head to learn psychomotor skills using piezoelectric device. Then, similar tasks were reproduced on a hen egg to reach a higher level of mastery and proficiency. The program and simulation models were evaluated according to a questionnaire by 200 practitioners at the end of each session. Results: Almost all participants reported that working on a sheep head authentically reproduced the tasks, that were completed after at least two attempts, with a feeling of projection into the clinical environment. All participants considered that undermining the membrane from the eggshell reproduced the same gesture on the Schneiderian membrane. However, only 30% of practitioners achieved this task on the hen egg requiring more than five attempts. Conclusion: The simulation program using the educational models that we have proposed allows us to carry out in the first stage of the simulation the basic learning of technical gestures in a high-fidelity environment and the second stage considered as an advanced simulation, to acquire a higher level of competence and technical capacity. Our simulation method is simple, inexpensive, and reliable to become standardized and followed on a larger scale in learning piezosurgical skills.