Background and Objective: The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of flipped classroom teaching and virtual reality (VR) on fourth-year dental students' comprehension of procedures and concepts in local anesthesia courses. Methods: The School of Dentistry at Chung Shan Medical University created a VR simulation that guided students through an inferior alveolar nerve block anesthesia procedure using HTC Vive headsets. Following traditional classroom lectures, students of the academic year 2022 participated in VR simulations and one-on-one practice, which was supplemented by instructional videos. Performance was assessed using a checklist, and feedback was collected via questionnaires. Results: Eighty-two students participated receiving an average score of 90.49. The tasks with the highest error rates were ``holding the syringe correctly,'' ``installing the dental cartridge,'' and ``using sterilization forceps correctly.'' Feedback indicated that although students found the resources useful in reducing clinical anxiety, students debated the VR's utility for acquiring tactile clinical skills, while strongly agreeing that it was effective for establishing a conceptual framework of the anesthesia steps. Conclusions: The flipped classroom and VR teaching methods are useful for developing a conceptual understanding of anesthesia procedures, but they have limited direct application in clinical practice. It is recommended that students have more hands-on practice opportunities to help them improve their clinical skills.
Chiu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.