Impact of Haptic Simulators and 3D-Printed Teeth on Dental Students' Self-Assessment of Endodontic Access Cavities: A Comparative Pilot Study.

Aim: This study aimed to compare the impact of two innovative training methods, haptic simulators and 3D-printed teeth, on the self-assessment accuracy of dental students when evaluating endodontic access cavities.

Methodology: A prospective, experimental, and comparative educational trial was conducted with undergraduate dental students randomly assigned to two groups: Group S (haptic simulators, n = 12) and Group 3D (3D-printed teeth, n = 10). Participants performed six access cavity preparations over two training sessions and self-assessed their work using a standardised evaluation form. A pre-test and post-test assessment of pre-prepared access cavities was conducted to measure changes in self-assessment accuracy. Evaluations were also performed by experts to establish a gold standard. The percentage of agreement and Cohen's kappa coefficient with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for both groups. Statistical analyses included McNemar's test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and Mann-Whitney U test (p < 0.05).

Results: Both groups improved their self-assessment scores over time. However, only Group S showed a statistically significant increase in correct responses in the post-test evaluation (p = 0.009). The overall agreement between participants and experts remained low in both groups, with Cohen's kappa values indicating fair agreement. The primary source of disagreement was overestimation, particularly in Group 3D. While Group S exhibited better alignment with expert assessments over time, differences between the two groups were not statistically significant.

Conclusions: Haptic simulators and 3D-printed teeth both contributed to students' self-assessment skills. However, haptic simulators were more effective in improving self-assessment accuracy. Despite these improvements, agreement with expert evaluations remained low; highlighting the need for additional feedback and guidance during training.