ImpressDent

Learning how to make dental impressions with a computer simulation

Abstract

Despite the importance of learning how to make accurate dental impressions, dental students do not currently get adequate opportunities to apply their dental anatomy knowledge to the procedure of impression-making. A computer simulation ImpressDent was built to allow students to test out various scenarios in order to understand the impact of different variables on dental impressions. A case study was conducted with ten dentistry students to find out what and how students learned from their interactions with ImpressDent. Congruent with our aim, students reported that they learned the impact of different variables on the dental impression and they identified iterative trial and error as their main learning process. The instructional design of ImpressDent can serve to guide educators interested in developing their students’ procedural knowledge in constructivist ways. Further investigations will be undertaken to examine the impact of this learning activity on students’ ability to evaluate their dental impression independently.