Abstract

The Virtual Dental Implant Trainer (VDIT) is a 3-D simulation environment for dental students to practice dental implant surgery procedures. It provides a highly authentic surgery experience for trainees looking to practice techniques learned elsewhere, or for experienced dentists looking to refresh their skills. Because of its focus on being a practice environment, VDIT does not contain many of the instructional design techniques often found in many other training simulations. Furthermore, there is limited use of game elements found in many other serious games. However, given the tasks and emphasis on practice, this is acceptable. With additional effort VDIT could be transitioned into a more effective and engaging instructional environment.

Introduction

The Virtual Dental Implant Trainer (VDIT) is a highly accurate procedural training simulation environment for dentists. VDIT is not intended to be a stand-alone learning experience for those i rst learning how to perform dental implant surgery. Rather, it was specii cally designed to be used in conjunction with other training, or for those seeking a practice environment. These decisions on use greatly affected the game’s design. The remaining sections of this chapter look at the effectiveness of these decisions on VDIT.