Background/Objectives: Appropriate use of a dental mirror (MT) is essential for dental treatment. However, because the mirror image differs depending on the operator’s position, there are few effective tools available to train dental students and inexperienced dentists. To address this issue, a new virtual reality (VR) system was developed. Methods: Eighty-seven participants, including instructor dentists, graduate students, trainee dentists, and dental students from Niigata University, participated in the experiment. The participants manipulated the virtual dental mirror (DM) connected to three-dimensional (3D) control devices while wearing a head-mounted display (HMD) to simulate an intraoral examination and caries removal. The distance between the center of the DM and the caries, area ratio of the caries on the DM, ellipticity of the caries image, and manipulation time were measured and compared between groups. Results: The mean distance between the centers was 1.18 mm for instructor dentists and 1.56 mm for the students (p = 0.003; effect size, 0.48). Instructor dentists demonstrated significantly superior performance in all evaluation categories compared to the other groups. This suggests that the level of clinical experience affected the results. Conclusions: The newly developed VR system can quantitatively and objectively evaluate DM manipulation. Differences in the operator’s clinical experience led to variations in the techniques used for mirror image confirmation and DM manipulation. This VR system enables quantitative feedback by outputting images from the HMD to a monitor. Therefore, it has the potential to evolve into an unprecedented training tool for dental students or trainees.
1 January 2017 in The Proceedings of JSME annual Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (Robomec)
At present, ratio of over 65 years older in Japan is considered to be 26.7% of total population. As an exercise program dedicated to the elderly, rehabilitation using a machine is widely used in nursing care and welfare facilities. However, problems about install cost and space occupancy will be occurred in order to spread them by small facilities. In our research, training machine reducing their size and combining two kinds of function of upper limbs has been proposed as one of solution. In this paper, mechanism design of change of functions and equipment for safety have been discussed. Finally, evaluation for the design and trial manufacture through the image analysis are shown.