Survey of student attitudes toward digital technology in practical technical dental education using the AR-Demonstrator-App

Purpose/objectives More and more creative applications are used in the field of dentistry for clinical practice, patient orientation, teaching, and learning, in order to awake the students' interest and to enable a deep learning and its retention. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the impact and the effectiveness of the current simulation laboratories on the practical dental education. For this purpose, a survey on a new developed "AR-Demonstrator-App" was conducted during the orthodontic technical courses in 2017, 2018, and 2020 in the Department of Orthodontics (C.G. Carus, TU Dresden, Germany). Methods With this application, the students had the opportunity to see every single step with instructions on how to manufacture a removable orthodontic device in a compulsory technical course. At the end of these courses, the students were asked to anonymously fill out a printed questionnaire with 12 questions regarding the learning progress related to the app. Results The yearly mean Likert scores and their bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals as well as the yearly median Likert scores suggest a very positive feedback about the use of the new application as an educational instrument. Despite the recognized predominant benefits of this app, the students concluded that they do not prefer the total replacement of the physical plaster casts and that a combination of conventional and computer-based education provided the optimum approach to acquisition of dental practical skills. Conclusions This survey indicates a generally positive attitude toward computer-assisted simulation systems, providing the facility for acquisition of knowledge and practical skills in a multimedia environment.