Endodontics is the branch of dentistry that deals with the treatement of the diseases within the tooth roots. The dentists training to work in Endodontics is done using extracted teeth, which are not always available, or using resin teeth, which doesn’t reproduce all the natural tooth physical properties. Since the treatment is performed inside the tooth, dentists do not see how treatment is evolving, so that, they need to develop high tactile sensitivity to know if the treatment is being performed correctly. New training methods using Virtual Reality based simulators equipped with haptic devices have been used for this type of training. However, most simulators are designed to simulate tasks that uses rotary dental drill to perform the coronary opening procedure, leaving aside the training of cleaning and shaping of root canals. For this task dentists use endodontic hand tools in the form of small files that are inserted on the root channels targeting to remove the pulp and extend its diameter. The main goal of this work is to develop a methodology for endodontic training that uses a Virtual Reality based simulator with a haptic device. This simulator allows to convincingly mimic the tactile sensation perceived by the dentist during the task of cleaning and shaping of root canals using endodontic hand tools. Besides the simulator, in order to support the methodology, a haptic device with four degrees of freedom, was designed and built. During the simulation, the system captures the movements and forces the dentist applies on the haptic device. After that, using a visualization software, the user can see these moves and analyze his own performance. Tests performed with dentists and dental students shown that the simulator is able to convincingly represents the haptic sensation that occurs in a real environment. The test results also show that the visualization system is effective to help the users to identify potential errors that may happen during the simulation.
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