Assessment of the students' performance and support needs in a novel digital carving exercise.

Objectives: In recent years, digital technology has been rapidly expanding in dental practice, which entails an early integration of digital dentistry into the preclinical dental curriculum. This study introduces first-year dental students to a digital carving exercise and investigates its role in enhancing their understanding and performance in traditional wax carving activities. Another objective was to explore the students' challenges and needs for support in the digital carving activity.

Methods: Digital carving exercise was introduced into the first-year dental morphology curriculum in 2020. Students' performance in anterior wax carving was quantitively compared prior to and following the implementation of the exercise. The students' grades in the digital carving exercise were also compared across three academic years: 2020, 2021, and 2022. Qualitatively, an interpretive description approach using focus group with 31 first-year dental students was utilized to explore their perspectives regarding the digital exercise.

Results: A statistically significant improvement was found in the students wax carving performance following the incorporation of the digital carving activity (p-value = 0.0001). Students' performance in the digital carving exercise also statistically improved over the years. Students' challenges included the technology's unfamiliarity, and a perceived irrelevance of the exercise. Additional guidance, resources, and timely feedback were reported among the students' support needs during the exercise.

Conclusion: Digital carving is a promising tool in anatomical education that can improve the students' spatial understanding and manual dexterity. However, educators need to carefully integrate it into the curriculum to address the students' challenges and optimize their learning experience.