DentSim Lab?

[REH]

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Hey Everyone,

Which schools have the DentSim simulator (http://www.denx.com/)? Personally, I think this is an amazing piece of technology.

I've seen it at Penn, Nova, Case, and Minnesota. Do you know where else they have it?


Thanks, and good luck to all.

REH

 

[DentalGal2005]

vcu has it. i think there are 20 of them and the class gets broken up into groups and does rotations.

 

[streptmutan]

UT has 40 as well and is working on updating those even more!

 

[cjb04]

If you explore their site, you will find it has a list of customers (schools), most of which are overseas. In North America, they have 40 Dentsim units at University of Tennessee, 20 at Minnesota, 20 at VCU, 15 at Penn, 10 at CASE, 6 at NOVA, 3 at Columbia, 2 at Temple, 2 at Stony Brooke, and 2 at University of Manitoba in Canada.

My question is, how much access do the students have to these dentsim units, especially at the schools with only a handful?

 

[REH]

That's great info cjb04. Thanks for posting it. I think practicing on this unit beforehand would really ease the transition from the preclinic to the clinic. You would have immediate feedback, thus reducing the learning curve.

Sorry, I wish I could answer your question. Maybe some of the dstudents on here could chime in.

I'm somewhat surprised to see that more schools haven't adopted this technology, but I imagine these units are rather spendy.


REH.

 

[Dr2BSoon]

At UDM we were considering getting these units, but were informed that the company was in the process of filing for bankruptcy. So the schools that have them are going to be hard pressed to find replacement parts when these units start breaking and failing.

 

[Wax n Relax]

I am one of the fortunate dental students at the U of Minnesota that has the pleasure of using the new machines. Its pretty neat, tough though. I feel that i have got alot better with the handpiece through my sessions though. Our class of 98 was split into 6 groups, each group set for 5 two hour sessions. Its especially neat because this is only my first semester of d school and we already get handpiece experience.

 

[DSpagnoli]

Hey Everyone,

Which schools have the DentSim simulator (http://www.denx.com/)? Personally, I think this is an amazing piece of technology.

I've seen it at Penn, Nova, Case, and Minnesota. Do you know where else they have it?


Thanks, and good luck to all.

REH

I hate these simulators, no offense. Really really really annoying and stupid piece of machinery. The best way to get a feel for a real handpiece and for preps is to use one on ivorine or real teeth. These machines are BS, and most dental students hate them. You will learn to hate them too one day

 

[streptmutan]

I cannot speak for any other school, but at UT the D1s are on the dent simulators from the first day. They are really awesome and teach one the basics of proper posture while working. it uses lasers to monitor your position while using the hand piece. for example if you lean over too far it will beep and you know you messed up.It will also test your preps and teaches basic clinical skills. You dont get a grade for this course only pass or not, but they are really neat and helpful in exposing weaknesses from day 1. 👍

 

[armorshell]

I hate these simulators, no offense. Really really really annoying and stupid piece of machinery. The best way to get a feel for a real handpiece and for preps is to use one on ivorine or real teeth. These machines are BS, and most dental students hate them. You will learn to hate them too one day

Same thing I've heard from everyone who has used them. Pre-dents love these things because they're fancy and techie and sound great on paper, but their use doesn't really pan out IRL.

 

[streptmutan]

Of course their use dosen't pan out IRL. The hand-piece is huge and 10/10 dentist today would fail the basic prep exam. They are not supposed to mimic real life. We know that we wont work on a number 14 every time. They are just used to prep us for clinical experience because every dental student didn't grow up in daddys office playing around with a handpiece and some schools thought it might be a good idea to expose all students to the handpiece from Day1 . Plus it looks really bad when your 3rd years cant hold a hand piece!

 

[DMDreaming]

I cannot speak for any other school, but at UT the D1s are on the dent simulators from the first day. They are really awesome and teach one the basics of proper posture while working. it uses lasers to monitor your position while using the hand piece. for example if you lean over too far it will beep and you know you messed up.It will also test your preps and teaches basic clinical skills. You dont get a grade for this course only pass or not, but they are really neat and helpful in exposing weaknesses from day 1. 👍

Sounds good in theory but, if the machines aren't calibrated correctly, they are worthless. I've been on the simulator prepping a tooth and the feedback on the monitor was about 2mm off where I was actually prepping!
Also, I agree with the previous poster that the handpieces are not a good representation of a real one. They are much more bulky and are not weight balanced which gives you hand fatigue much more quickly. It also changes how you hold the handpiece. So even though they sound cool, they are limited in their effectiveness by calibration and design differences.