Training in tooth preparation utilizing a support system.

Tooth preparation is an essential technique for dental treatment, but it is a skill not easily learned by a dental student. To facilitate this leaning process, a new tooth preparation support system with a parallel link mechanism was developed. This study reports the educational efficiency of this system for dental students. Dental students with no experience in clinical practice were selected and divided into two groups; one trained with this support system; and the other, with freehand preparation. They prepared axial walls in right maxillary second premolars and molars mounted in a phantom manikin with an air-turbine handpiece. Convergence angles of the axial walls and parallelisms between axes of prepared teeth were evaluated. Training with the support system led to significantly smaller convergence angles and parallelisms as compared with freehand preparation training. With the freehand preparation after training, the convergence angles and parallelisms became smaller in the group trained with the support system than those trained with freehand. The above findings suggest that training in tooth preparation utilizing the newly developed support system can be one of practical programs that are useful for dental students to achieve greater competency in tooth preparation.