Introduction to Simulator

Read more in our booklet. 

The Oral Surgery Simulator combines the best of haptic technologies, medical and scientific visualization techniques and advance graphics to develop a comprehensive simulator based training environment for dental students to practice surgical procedures.  This simulator would be able to meet the needs of medical students who wish to have more training in surgical procedures in a risk free environment. This also removes the need for the supervisor and student to be co-located in one area, which would reduce the strain on resources that has prevented students from obtaining more surgical practice during their education. 

With the use of 3D stereo glasses, dental students would be fully immersed in a virtual environment where they would be able to access different teaching cases in oral surgery. Users of the simulator can practice the entire surgical procedure and obtain real time feedback and track their progress at all times. Currently, the main surgical procedure of focus for the simulator is wisdom tooth extraction, with further developments in creating new models that can be applied in all oral surgical procedures.  

A core component in the simulator is the haptic device, which provides six degrees of freedom input and force feedback, enabling the tactile exploration of the teeth and jaw. The design of the haptic device used in this simulator closely resembles the straight surgical dental drill, which differs from the common dental drill which is angled.

The virtual drill is colocated with the user's hand, which when combined with stereo glasses, transforms the image into a full 3D immersion experience. It also enables the natural movement of the virtual drill. The virtual full-size patient head consists of a combined computer model face and a jaw model derived from a real patient using Computing Tomography.  

Applications of Forsslund System Simulator 

• Wisdom tooth extraction
• Oral Surgery 
• Pre-surgery preparations
• Orthopedics  

Main Attributes 

• Use of haptic technology
  • Users will be able to feel the actual vibrations from the virtual drill as they proceed with the simulation. Combining various technologies and haptic devices, force feedback can be obtained during simulation.
• Real time feedback
  • Users are able to get real time feedback during their practice, obtaining valuable information about the procedure that would aid in their decision making. 
• Playback enabled
  • Users would be able to review their practice frame by frame to assess and analyze what has been done during the practice sessions. Supervisors would also be able to go through the process with the student post-session to evaluate what has been achieved. Students are also able to pause and save their practice sessions such that they can return to it later to continue with their procedure. This allows for students to have the possibility of practicing and reviewing a particular portion repeatedly.   
• Progress and assessment reports for tracking of students
  • Analysis of progress and competency assessment reports are generated at the end of the student's session. This allows supervisors and students to track the progress of students over time and evaluate the results of simulator-based training on their surgical skills and competencies.