Knowing how to diagnose effectively and efficiently is a fundamental skill that a good dental professional should acquire. If students perform a greater number of clinical cases, they will improve their performance with patients. In this sense, virtual patients with artificial intelligence offer a controlled, stimulating, and safe environment for students. To assess student satisfaction after interaction with an artificially intelligent chatbot that recreates a virtual patient, a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in which a virtual patient was created with artificial intelligence in the form of a chatbot and presented to fourth and fifth year dental students. After several weeks interacting with the AI, they were given a survey to find out their assessment. A total of 193 students participated. A large majority of the students were satisfied with the interaction (mean 4.36), the fifth year students rated the interaction better and showed higher satisfaction values. The students who reached a correct diagnosis rated this technology more positively. Our research suggests that the incorporation of this technology in dental curricula would be positively valued by students and would also ensure their training and adaptation to new technological developments.

Background and Aims A study was made to evaluate knowledge of dental trauma among first‐year dental students at the start of the career; assess the knowledge gained immediately after a lecture intervention; and evaluate persisting knowledge on an annual basis until the fourth year of the career. Material and Methods The study involved 29 volunteers from the first year of dentistry (School of Dentistry, Madrid Complutense University, Madrid, Spain). All the participants completed a previously validated questionnaire including questions referred to the management of dental trauma at the site of the accident, and other related aspects. This was followed by a brief lecture on the subject, and then the same questionnaire was administered again. Completion of the original questionnaire was subsequently repeated on an annual basis up until the fourth year of the career. Repeated measures analysis was used to assess the evolution of student knowledge. Results Knowledge of the subject was seen to be lacking at the start of the career, but increased significantly as a result of the lecture intervention (P < .001). Over the subsequent courses, although the notions referred to dental trauma were seen to decrease with respect to the first evaluation, they remained high. All of the participants agreed on the need for informative campaigns referred to dental trauma targeted to students in the first courses of the health sciences. Conclusions It is necessary to impart knowledge on the prevention and immediate management of dental traumatisms in order to improve their prognosis. This learning is especially relevant to students in the first courses of the health sciences.

Introduction The evolution of the pandemic has generated a crisis in all areas, also including the faculties of dentistry. We detail how the teaching guides for clinical subjects have been adapted in the Department of Clinical Dentistry at the Universidad Europea of Madrid, moving to a 100% online environment. Usual development of clinical practices in the DDS degree of UEM Students in the fourth and fifth year of DDS degree take the courses “Introduction to Clinical Practice” and “Supervised Practice.” Within the framework of continuous assessment, different systems and procedures are used to evaluate knowledge, skills or competences. Curricular adaptation during the period of the COVID‐19 pandemic It was necessary to adapt the practical contents to virtual contents. 35% of the course (12 weeks) was adapted to a 100% online environment. Several activities were carried out that could be evaluated in real time, including lectures, clinical cases and resolution of multidisciplinary dental treatments. Development of clinical practices in health education in other institutions during the pandemic A narrative review was conducted to identify how this situation has been addressed in other institutions and countries; finding that similarly, it has been possible to establish monitoring of clinical practices in a virtual environment. An online questionnaire was conducted to the fourth and fifth year students of DDS degree to stablish the acceptance of the adaptation during the pandemic. Conclusion Despite the limitations of online training for the development of clinical practice, a system has been established to ensure appropriate clinical training for undergraduate students in dentistry. Some of the developments were well accepted by the students.

Small molecules have demonstrated promising results as successful alternatives to growth factors. In this study, focus was drawn to CHIR99021 and tideglusib as GSK-3 inhibitors known for their anti-inflammatory and regenerative potential. The effect of both tideglusib and CHIR99021 on the proliferation, viability, and stemness of human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) was investigated to assess their possible role in regenerative dentistry. Briefly, hDPSCs were isolated from sound premolars extracted for orthodontic purposes. Cytotoxicity and proliferation assessment were performed via cell counting kit-8 followed by flow cytometric analysis of apoptotic marker ANNEXIN V. The effect of both small molecules on the stemness of hDPSCs was analyzed by qRT-PCR. Both tideglusib and CHIR99021 were proven to be safe on hDPSCs. The tideglusib concentration that resulted in higher viable cells was 100 nM, while the concentration for CHIR99021 was 5 nM. Both small molecules successfully induced cellular proliferation and demonstrated minimal expression of ANNEXIN V, indicative of the absence of cellular apoptosis and further confirming their positive effect on proliferation. Finally, both small molecules enhanced stemness markers expression as evidenced by qRT-PCR, which, again, highlighted the positive effect of both tideglusib and CHIR99021 on safely promoting the proliferation of hDPSCs while maintaining their stemness.

Introduction: One of the main challenges in pediatric dentistry is to provide a favorable experience to the patient, and the success of the treatment depends on this to a large extent. For this reason, multiple methods have arisen, among which are virtual reality glasses, that try to facilitate the management of behavior in the dental office by reducing the dental anxiety of patients. Objectives: The effectiveness of the use of virtual reality glasses as a distraction in pediatric dentistry was studied. In addition, a bibliographic review was performed to determine whether the use of virtual reality reduces anxiety and improves the behavior of children during their dental consultations and dental treatments. Methodology: To obtain the information, we performed a bibliographic review using electronic bibliographic sources from scientific databases, high-impact journals and specialized search engines. Results and Discussion: It is relatively easy to obtain information on the level of dental anxiety of the child patient by means of different scales and the use of a digital pulse oximeter, which helps us to know the effectiveness of the use of virtual reality glasses at the time of the dental procedure. The greatest controversy is found in cases in which it is not possible to adjust them because of the age and size of the child or because of the personal use of glasses. Conclusions: There are multiple studies that confirm the effectiveness of the use of virtual reality glasses as a distraction in pediatric dentistry, and these studies support the effectiveness of virtual reality glasses in reducing dental anxiety and improving the behavior of patients during their consultations and dental treatments.