The rise of virtual reality and haptic technologies has created exciting new applications in medical training and education. In a dental simulation, haptic technology can create the illusion of substances (teeth, gingiva, bone, etc.) by providing interaction forces within a simulated virtual world of the mouth. In this article, a haptic periodontal training simulation system, named Haptodont, is developed and evaluated for simulating periodontal probing. Thirty-two faculty members from New York University College of Dentistry were recruited and divided into three groups to evaluate three fundamental functionalities: Group 1 evaluated bi-manual 3 Degrees of Freedome (DoF) haptic interaction, Group 2 evaluated bi-manual 3 DoF haptic interaction with a finger support mechanism, and Group 3 evaluated bi-manual 3 DoF haptic interaction with finger support mechanism and vibrotactile feedback. The probe and mirror interactions were simulated with the Geomagic Touch haptic device whereas the finger support was implemented using the Novint Falcon device. The three groups conducted two probing tasks: healthy gingiva scenario with no pockets (2- to 3-mm depth) and periodontitis scenario with deep pockets (4- to 8-mm depth). Results demonstrated that experts performed comparably to clinical settings in terms of probing depth error (within 0.3 to 0.6 mm) and probing forces (less than 0.5 N). Furthermore, the finger support mechanism significantly improved the probing accuracy for periodontitis condition in the lingual region. The argument that probing the lingual region is more difficult than the buccal region is supported by quantitative evidence (significantly higher probing depth error and probing force). Further research is planned to improve the usability of the finger support, integrate the Haptodont system into the pre-clinical curriculum, and evaluate the Haptodont system with dental students as a learning tool.

中文翻译：

---

具有手指支持和振动触觉反馈的双手动基于触觉的牙周模拟

虚拟现实和触觉技术的兴起在医学培训和教育中创造了令人兴奋的新应用。在牙科模拟中，触觉技术可以通过在模拟的口腔虚拟世界中提供相互作用力来产生物质（牙齿、牙龈、骨骼等）的错觉。在本文中，开发并评估了一种名为 Haptodont 的触觉牙周训练模拟系统，用于模拟牙周探测。招募了来自纽约大学牙科学院的 32 名教职员工，并分为三组来评估三个基本功能：第一组评估了双手动 3 自由度 (DoF) 触觉交互，第二组评估了双手动 3 自由度触觉交互与手指支撑机构的互动，第 3 组评估了双手动 3 DoF 触觉交互与手指支撑机制和振动触觉反馈。使用 Geomagic Touch 触觉设备模拟探针和镜子的交互，而使用 Novint Falcon 设备实现手指支撑。三组进行了两项探查任务：没有牙袋的健康牙龈情景（2 至 3 毫米深度）和有深牙袋的牙周炎情景（4 至 8 毫米深度）。结果表明，专家在探测深度误差（在 0.3 到 0.6 毫米内）和探测力（小于 0.5 N）方面的表现与临床环境相当。此外，手指支撑机构显着提高了舌区牙周炎的探测精度。定量证据支持探测舌区域比颊区域更困难的论点（显着更高的探测深度误差和探测力）。计划进一步研究以提高手指支撑的可用性，将 Haptodont 系统整合到临床前课程中，并以牙科学生作为学习工具来评估 Haptodont 系统。