We tend to accept criticism from a machine better than from a human being. There is no emotion. At Temple, where faculty and students are still becoming acquainted with the DentSims, the units provide third-year students with additional practice. The school is using the units primarily to help students who have just started working with patients in the school clinic. It is just pretty much a review, Sisson said.
Different schools use the machines differently.
Sisson said the DentSim database included simulated patient records with common dental situations - for example, a cavity, which shows up as a green spot on the image of the tooth that the student sees on the computer monitor. The student uses an actual drill to bore into one of the DentSim s removable teeth. Once you have got rid of the cavity, you hear a ding, Sisson said. And if you make a mistake, you hear a different kind of noise. It s similar to the sound that accompanies a computer error message.