Use of caries annotation principles for caries assessment on intraoral scans to retain quality of clinically-oriented dental education

Abstract

Introduction. Considering all the variety of the instruments that can be used during online study mode there is a significant amount of possibilities to improve its quality in general, while also to compensate lack of clinical component of the study to some extent. Objective. To develop algorithm of intraoral scans-based caries annotation principles implementation into the online study process to retain quality of clinically-oriented dental education. Materials and methods. Intraoral scans were obtained from dental patients of University Dental Clinic (Faculty of Dentistry, Uzhhorod National University) with the use Medit I500 device. Exocad view was used as an application to view intraoral scans of the patients. G.V. Black’s and Mount & Hume's classificationі of caries were used for caries annotation, while students were also asked to specify the surface location of the caries and its spread as it was seen over intraoral scan. Results and discussions. Use of caries annotation principles for caries assessment on intraoral scans helps to get students involved into modern digital dental technologies advance starting from the pre-clinical course level. Implementation of such approach on usual bases will help to get students familiar with features of intraoral scans as 3D graphical objects and manipulation with them, support understanding of intraoral scanning process in general, expand their knowledge regarding intraoral scans as patient’s objective data which may be used for the diagnostics and treatment planning purposes. Conclusion. Usage of caries annotation principles for caries assessment on intraoral scans tends to improve quality of caries topics teaching among undergraduate dental students and partially compensates limitations caused by the online mode of studying within ongoing war conditions in Ukraine. Digitalization of some parts of clinically-oriented dental education with the formulation of so-called «digital dental patient» education concept helps to retain proper clinical component of dental education in general, even though it is not tends to replace it, but to deepen original clinical knowledge based on the use of modern digital technologies.