DENTLEARN PERIODONTICS: CLINICAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS
Authors: Tabirca Sabin , Zaida Hassan , Allen Edith , Curtin Sharon , Murphy Claire , Stack Garreth 
Published: February 2023

Students in dental education are increasingly becoming technologically advanced, perhaps more than their teachers. Their communication is progressively becoming reliant on technology rather than a person to person path. They are also more reliant on educational web based resources to support their learning. Advances or development in interactive web based educational tools (IWET) will meet their expectations and allow for an on demand flexible delivery of educational material that supports their learning and allows vertical and horizontal integration within the syllabus. IWET have the added benefit of bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and development of psychomotor skills. Interactive web based tools in dentistry are as valuable as other methods of traditional teaching. However, they should not replace the pedagogy but be complementary to it.
Periodontology is the clinical, dental specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis and management of plaque bacteria-mediated inflammation in the supporting tissues around teeth. The complete removal of plaque-retaining calculus/tartar from all tooth surfaces is a crucial part of successful treatment. This calculus removal, be it above the gum margin (supragingival), or below the gum margin (subgingival), requires a psychomotor skill that may take years of practice to attain, particularly for subgingival calculus, where its removal relies on tactile sensation, and in effect is a blind procedure. This also requires the knowledge of and the use of various types of instruments, depending on the location in the mouth and whether the calculus is supragingival or subgingival. The initial stage of development of the skill requires repeated practice on clinical mannequins/simulators.
Research collaboration between the Dental School and Hospital Cork and the Department of Computer Science at University College Cork saw the development of an interactive web-based educational tool and a phone application. The methodology employed in the development of these educational tools include a video recording of the clinical procedures for full mouth scaling with a visual narrative describing various seating positions of the dental clinician, instrument selection and application and a synchronized verbal description of the steps undertaken when engaging in a periodontal scaling procedure. These educational tools have been developed and will be made available for students to use during their practice on mannequins/simulators.
DentLearn is a repository of interactive e-learning materials which can be populated dynamically with new content. The core of the e-learning tool is an e-learning content player that can display the video and the slides associated with a procedure in a synchronized manner. The player uses some recent Smile-based technologies that make the synchronization possible as well as it enhances the player controls with more visual elements. Furthermore, the player can swap between video and slides slides in the central panel for displaying the e-learning content. The repository contains at present only e-learning materials related with Periodontics teaching. However, it has some user friendly functions that allow for new content to be added to it. A scale down version of the repository was made available for mobile devices. A future aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of the interactive web-based tool and phone application as an educational support for dental students. Further plan is to apply this e-learning to other dental specialties in addition to the development of animation and simulation models that are virtually pressure sensitive, interactive and responsive.