Shaky hands, a sweaty brow and hunched shoulders are likely the last expressions you’d want to see lying back in the chair of your local dental hygienist.
Whether your visit is for a routine cleaning or a root canal, the dentist can be a scary moment for the millions of people who make the trip in the US every year. But what if there’s a technology that could give your dental hygienist more confidence with the tools associated with the very necessary trade?
In 1957, when the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) opened its doors with a goal of offering accessible and affordable education, technology was only just at a global milestone of creating the first-ever digital image.
Now, nearly 70 years later, the local public institution — which sees over 50,000 students each year across 300 programs — launched its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) degree program and is set to release a first-of-its-kind VR Dental Hygiene Lab at its Dundalk location this year.
The required biology, chemistry and core clinical coursework remain essential for students in the School of Health Professions at CCBC, which also offers degrees and certifications in nursing, surgical technology and histotechnology used to detect infections.
The school’s dental hygiene director for the last three years, Brionna Watson-Burris, says these tech-savvy additions to its existing dental hygiene lab mark a milestone for the dental profession in Maryland.
“In the US, there’s currently virtual reality being used for dental students, but not dental hygiene students,” said Watson-Burris.
With financial support from the Delta Dental Foundation, an out-of-state healthcare grantmaker focused on oral health equity, the college secured twenty new Meta Quest VR headsets for its dental hygiene students.
Watson-Burris says the software for the headsets had to be adapted to US standards for dental hygiene from an existing program developed by Gleechi, a Swedish virtual reality training company founded in 2014. Gleechi’s VirtualGrasp technology allows students to interact with any designed virtual environment.
A virtual lesson reduces real-world risk
Watson-Burris tapped into her connection with a local VR implementation partner, Black Meta Agency, a relationship that began at the CIAA Tech Summit, to help tailor the program to what CCBC students.
Now, students will be able to practice skills like sequencing and operatory setup using the correct metric system and in an environment that mirrors the dental offices we see in the US. The goal, according to Watson-Burris, is to reduce risk during real procedures by giving students more opportunities for repetition beyond what they already practice on their mannequin, Dexter.
The hope is that this will leave students with less clinical anxiety, more confidence and ultimately lead to better outcomes for both learners and patients.
Before this VR training effort was piloted at CCBC, headsets were already in use for dentistry programs at nearby institutions like the University of Maryland and as far away as schools like New York University (NYU) to help dentistry students grasp complex concepts in three dimensions.
At NYU, the estimated cost of attendance for full-time dentistry students taking a twenty-credit course load exceeds $50,000 per fall semester, not including course-specific fees, housing and other expenses. Students who train to become dentists or dental surgeons, programs that can take nearly a decade and hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete.
Full-time students at CCBC pay roughly $5,200 per year if they are county residents, or about $9,000 for Maryland residents from other counties. CCBC’s dental hygiene program offers a two-year program with comparable VR technology training at a fraction of the cost.
Becoming a dentist and becoming a dental hygienist are very different paths. At CCBC, students graduate with the associate’s degree required to become dental hygienists and are prepared to take the National Board Exams needed for licensure.
Most students take up to four board exams, followed by applying to the Maryland State Board for their license as Registered Dental Hygienists. While the training requirements differ from those of dentists who finish with a doctoral degree, the confidence and preparation required to hold sharp tools in someone’s mouth are the same, according to Watson-Burris.
She’s been an instructor at the college for nearly a decade and hopes to have the same software that NYU students use for local anesthesia downloaded to the new Meta Quest headsets right here in Dundalk in time for students to use this semester.
“Anesthesia, that’s a course that usually takes place as they transition from first to second year students, and that course is really high anxiety,” said Watson-Burris, “I’m really looking forward to adding that to the headset … they’ll be able to practice a lot of infection control, other instrument handling and sequencing.”
Trailblazers in dental hygiene education
Whether virtual reality will steady the hands of the next generation of dental hygienists and make trips to the dentist less scary is still unknown. But first and second year students at CCBC will be among the first to help answer that question through the college’s latest technological offering.
Despite how DEI efforts might be perceived at the federal level, Watson-Burris wants students from all backgrounds to know they have a place in the dental hygiene program. As director, she is focused on improving both student retention and attracting a diverse student body. Currently, the program brings in about 40 students each fall, with graduation rates around 55% to 60%, and she hopes to increase those numbers during her tenure.
“I want to be able to diversify that so that we have a broader range of clinicians treating patients,” said Watson-Burris. We know that clinician-to-patient care can definitely be influenced by the clinician who’s actually providing it and those patients feeling that they can build a rapport.”
Prospective students, especially those from diverse backgrounds, are encouraged to reach out with questions about the dental hygiene program.
