Peri-implant disease education and diagnosis in the pre-doctoral curriculum.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess how pre-doctoral periodontal programs in the United States of America are educating their dental students regarding the management of peri-implant diseases and secondarily, to determine if a current standard of teaching exists. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Electronic surveys were distributed to pre-doctoral program directors across 57 dental schools in the United States via a secure online survey system. The survey consisted of 19 questions pertaining to curriculum structure involving didactic and clinical management of peri-implant diseases. RESULTS: A total of 25 program directors (44%) responded, and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results indicated a lack of standardization of pre-doctoral didactic and clinical curriculum among dental schools. CONCLUSIONS: Data pooled from 25 pre-doctoral periodontal programs in the United States show that there is currently no standardization in the dental school curriculum related to the didactic and clinical management of peri-implant diseases. The development of standardized content is recommended to assist program directors in assessing and enhancing educational experiences for dental students on the management of peri-implant diseases.

The Importance of Obtaining a Pulpal and Periradicular Diagnosis Prior to Restorative Treatment.

Maintaining dental pulp vitality should be among the clinical goals of any restorative treatment. By obtaining a pretreatment pulpal and periradicular diagnosis before performing restorative treatment, the clinician will be better able to proceed with treatment of the pulp, especially if it is exposed during caries excavation. A pretreatment pulpal and periapical diagnosis may be effectively attained by performing five objective clinical tests: pulp sensibility, percussion (which may include bite testing), palpation, periodontal probing/ tooth mobility, and updated radiography. This article provides a description of these five clinical tests and gives an overview of current terminologies used when obtaining a pulpal and periradicular diagnosis.

Assessment of faculty perception of content validity of PerioSim, a haptic-3D virtual reality dental training simulator.

Haptic technology (sense of touch) along with 3D-virtual reality (VR) graphics, creating lifelike training simulations, was used to develop a dental training simulator system (PerioSim). This preliminary study was designed to evaluate whether faculty considered PerioSim realistic and useful for training and evaluating basic procedural skills of students. The haptic device employed was a PHANToM and the simulator a Dell Xeon 530 workstation with 3D, VR oral models and instruments viewed on a stereoscopic monitor. An onscreen VR periodontal probe or explorer was manipulated by operating the PHANToM for sensing lifelike contact and interactions with the teeth and gingiva. Thirty experienced clinical dental and dental hygiene faculty judged the realism of the system. A PowerPoint presentation on one screen provided instructions for the simulator use with the 3D, VR simulator on a second stereoscopic monitor viewed with 3D goggles. Faculty/practitioners found the images very realistic for teeth and instruments, but less so for gingiva. Tactile sensation was realistic for teeth but not so for gingiva. The onscreen instructions were very useful with high potential for teaching. Faculty members anticipated incorporating this device into teaching and were enthusiastic about its potential for evaluating students' basic procedural skills. This study suggests that the preliminary "evidence-of-concept" was successful and PerioSim may aid students in developing necessary dental tactile skills.