Effect of computer-assisted-learning and simulation clinics on dental students' cognitive and performance skills: panoramic image errors related to patient's head position.

Objectives: To assess dental students' ability to recognize head positioning errors in panoramic (PAN) images after individual learning via computer-assisted-learning (CAL) and in a simulation clinic (SIM). Both cognitive skills and performance in patient examination were assessed.

Methods And Materials: 60 students (mean age 23.25 years) participated in lectures on the relation between PAN-image errors and patient's head position. Immediately after they took a test, based on which they were randomized to three groups: control (CON) group, CAL group, and SIM group (both CAL and training in a simulation clinic with a phantom). 4-5 weeks after intervention/no intervention, all students individually examined a patient with PAN-exposure. A blinded rater, not knowing group allocation, supervised patient exposure and assessed student's performance (correct/incorrect head position in three planes). 1-2 weeks after, the students scored positioning errors in 40 PAN-images. Differences in cognitive test scores between groups were evaluated by ANOVA and in patient examination by χ tests, and within-group differences by sign-tests.

Results: No statistically significant difference in cognitive test scores was seen between the SIM and CAL group, while the CON group scored lower ( < 0.003). In all groups, several students positioned the patient incorrectly in the Frankfort horizontal plane. All students performed well in the sagittal plane. Students in SIM group positioned the patient more correctly in the coronal plane.

Conclusions: Training with CAL increased students' cognitive skills compared with a control group. Simulated patient exposure with a phantom increased to some extent their performance skills in examination of patients.