Physiomedia: A hypermedia tutorial aid for Oral Physiology education

Oral physiology is a basic discipline indispensable to the curriculum of dentistry, in which the functional aspects of the oral cavity and its related structures are expounded. Objective: is to develop a hypermedia tutorial to be used as a didactic aid, which will make the comprehension of physiological processes much easier. This module will present the somatic aspects referent to sensibility, including nervous fibers and its receptors, its engagement mechanism, location in the oral cavity, classification and properties, and the pathways taken by nervous impulses provoked by various stimuli until reaching the cerebral cortex for evaluation and interpretation. Audio that complement elements involved in the simulations can simultaneously be executed, also incorporated are presentations of texts which contribute information about these processes. Methods: for the development of this tutorial, C++ and HTML computer languages were utilized, along with the environment developer C++ Builder and the electronic editing tools Corel Draw and Photoshop, used for editing and the creation of images.Results: the better fixation of the concepts alread showed in the expository class, making the study more interesting and the student more stimulated. Conclusion: the use of this hypermedia resource permits the visualization of static and dynamic images, including animations that illustrate physiological processes that will possibilite the best quality of the learning and teaching processes and this discipline.