Evaluating Cavity Preparations in Operative Course of Dentistry Studies by the use of Novel Multicolored 3D Teeth

Objectives: Accurate assessment of dental students' performances during phantom preclinical operative course is crucial concerning further clinical studding. Our purpose was to compare students' clinical assessment of cavity preparations using novel multicolored 3D model to the conventional plastic teeth by evaluating inter and intra-examiner reliability and to evaluate the extent of instructors' clinical experience on the evaluation reliability of clinical performance
Methods: Thirty-seven dentistry students in their clinical years performed three Class I amalgam cavity preparations on novel 3D multicolored printed teeth. The models were 3D printed white teeth including three colored layers of green, yellow and red indicating if preparation is accepted, limited or unaccepted, respectively. The preparations were graded blindly by two instructors (having different experience) twice (3 months apart) and the grades were compared with preparations on conventional plastic teeth
Results: Results indicated excellent inter-examiner reliability on multicolored teeth (0.768Conclusions: In essence, the novel 3D multicolored printed teeth can provide more objective evaluation of cavity preparation compared with conventional plastic teeth.