Technical Protocol for Presenting Maxillofacial Prosthetics Concepts to Dental Students using Interactive 3D Virtual Models within a Portable Document Format.

Abstract

An appropriate presentation of maxillofacial defects and their prosthetic rehabilitation concepts using traditional two-dimensional educational materials is challenging for dental students and prosthodontics residents. This technique article introduces a simple approach to visualize and communicate three-dimensional (3D) virtual models embedded into a portable document format (PDF) file for presenting maxillofacial prosthetics concepts and enhancing students' spatial ability when learning maxillofacial prosthetics. MeVisLab software was used to combine various maxillofacial models and save them as a single 3D model. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC software was used to import the 3D model and create interactive visualization PDF documents. Adobe reader software was then used to visualize the content of the PDF documents. This approach allows educators to develop PDF files with multiple 3D models for teaching maxillofacial prosthetics concepts and communicate them with their students. Students can simply open the PDF file, activate the 3D mode, and interactively manipulate the 3D models to enhance their spatial ability for learning maxillofacial prosthetics.