The use of real time video magnification for the pre-clinical teaching of crown preparations.

Abstract

To investigate the effect on the undergraduate learning process of using an alternative method designed to enhance the visual demonstration of taper on full veneer crown preparations (better understanding of the value of taper on preparations early in the teaching programme in restorative dentistry). A comparison between the conventional teaching of full veneer crown preparations and the same teaching with the additional use of a magnified real time video display using a surgical microscope was investigated in this study. The degree of taper was measured for replica full crown preparations and results compared between different cohorts of undergraduates and experimental conditions. Undergraduates taught using the real time video produced more accurately tapered preparations. This ability was retained over one year. A possible explanation for the result was that the use of magnification improved the undergraduates' precise understanding of taper by enhancing their ability to evaluate this critical measurement during the teaching process.