HIGH POINT, N.C., March 23, 2023 – High Point University’s Workman School of Dental Medicine has installed the first 10 SIMtoCARE dental simulation units that its team of professionals will use to train dental students. Ten more haptic simulators are expected to arrive by May, said Dr. Scott De Rossi, founding dean of the Workman School of Dental Medicine.

“This will make us the largest SIMtoCARE lab in the world,” said De Rossi. “It really reflects the university’s commitment to educate students for the future of health care, and this is in fact the future of dental education. With us being the largest in the world, it allows us to educate and train our dental students in large numbers on this state-of-the-art technology and simulation so that they can achieve clinical competency before they ever see a real patient.”

SIMtoCARE CEO and Co-Founder Karel van Gelder, who visited HPU for the technology’s installation, compared the simulators to those used to train pilots and said that is how the technology was developed in the Netherlands.

“You’ve heard of flight simulators for airplanes,” said van Gelder. “This is a simulator for dentists, and it allows you to train in a safe way without seeing patients. We can replicate the feel of a real tooth with the pulp inside.”

The SIMtoCARE hand piece connects to electromotors, which create a realistic feel for students to practice procedures such as giving a patient a filling or performing a root canal. The computer provides exact measurements, instant patient feedback and records data, said van Gelder.   Only about 20 universities in the world use haptics, said Dr. Ali Shazib, an associate professor, assistant dean and chief clinical officer of the Workman School of Dental Medicine.

“This is a unique and cutting-edge technology for us to have for our students, faculty and team members,” said Shazib. “It’s critical for education, quality improvement and calibration. Our hope is to provide students who are practice-ready and exposed to the complexities of technology to be able to succeed in the evolving digital revolution that’s going on in dentistry.”

The overall goal is to give patients dental care that is calibrated at the highest quality, Shazib said. Previously that care would have been through an exam, which is subjective. This new technology provides an objective method to baseline, calibrate and continually improve the quality of care, he said.     

“Our goal is to get inspiration from the aviation industry in providing a high quality of care experience for our patients through simulation training,” said Shazib. “A pilot doesn’t fly a plane or get a license to fly 300 passengers until they pass rigorous simulation training.”

Laith Abdelmajid, a dental assistant at Randleman Dental who helps manage the SIMtoCARE simulator lab and a prospective dental student, said he is impressed with how HPU is building its dentistry program.

“This is going to be the future of dentistry,” said Abdelmajid. “These simulators are going to show a different type of experience in dentistry, give a different hands-on learning for students and provide good constructive criticism as well.”

Most dental education programs now require students to buy plastic teeth that are put inside a fake mouth and must be replaced after each session, said Kimberly Werth, an assistant professor and assistant dean for student and professional success in HPU’s dental school. Perfect plastic teeth don’t allow students to see individual nuances they will encounter with actual patients. Such nuances can be scanned and downloaded into the simulators.

“I think this equipment will allow our students to have an additional opportunity to learn the finer points of dental procedures and to practice that routinely at a much lower cost,” said Werth. “With this, they will be able to practice again and again immediately. Another thing that excites me about this is the capability to scan someone’s mouth. That scan can be downloaded onto this equipment so they literally can practice the skills and techniques over and over until they reach near perfection. That’s a tool that is priceless.”

HPU’s Doctor of Dental Medicine degree program will enroll its inaugural class in the fall of 2024, and the Workman School of Dental Medicine will be North Carolina’s only dental school at a private university.