Application of 3D silicone cleft lip surgery model in oral and maxillofacial surgery education
Objective:To explore the application value of 3D silicone cleft lip surgery model with high simulation and realistic tactile feedback in oral and maxillofacial surgery teaching.Methods:Forty undergraduates majoring in stomatolo-gy of Wuhan University from 2019 were enrolled and randomly divided into the experimental group and the conventional group,with 20 students in each group.Both groups first gave theoretical lectures according to the teaching process,watched operation videos,and then the traditional group outlined the cleft lip on rubber gloves for fixed-point positioning.The experi-mental group used a 3D silicone cleft lip surgery model for fixed-point positioning.Both groups underwent incision and suture operations for cleft lip surgery after confirmation by the teacher.After the completion of cleft lip surgery,three teachers will conduct theoretical and skill assessments on oral and maxillofacial surgery knowledge for two groups of students.At the same time,a questionnaire will be distributed to students to evaluate the effectiveness of cleft lip surgery on the two groups of mod-els.Results:Both groups successfully completed the teaching course,and the experimental group students achieved better the-oretical results.They also met the requirements of clinical standardization in model positioning and surgical operations in skill assessment.The scores of postoperative upper lip symmetry and other indicators were higher than those of the traditional group(P<0.01).The survey results show that there were significant differences in the evaluation of the cleft lip model and the rat-ing of the cleft lip operation items compared to the traditional group.The scores on items 1,"The model used improved the accuracy of the operation",item 5,"Being able to master the method of muscle dissection separation",and item 7,"More confidence in future clinical operations of cleft lip surgery"were significantly higher than those of the traditional group(P<0.01).Conclusion:The application of 3D silicone cleft lip surgery model in oral and maxillofacial surgery teaching can ef-fectively enhance students'learning interest and improve teaching quality.