INEXPENSIVE DENTISTRY TRAINING USING VIRTUAL REALITY TOOLS I.B. Pavaloiu 1 , S.A. Sandu 2 , S. Grigorescu 1 , G. Dragoi 1 1 University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (ROMANIA) 2 Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy (ROMANIA) Abstract Dental medicine involves complicated and precise operations which require a long-term training and practice. The paper describes some of the procedures that are assessed in the framework of the VIR- PRO Romanian research project in order to increase the preparation and competitiveness of dental students, doctors in training and dental technicians by using dedicated Virtual Reality tools. The VIR- PRO project has three main components: a Virtual Learning Environment for dentistry represented by a web/cloud based tutoring platform, a Virtual Reality laboratory training phase and finally a physical training phase using 3D printed synthetic models. The second component implies the creation of a virtual 3D training environment containing the oral cavity with teeth and gums, associated with navigation and dental tools. The standard human-computer interface for dental training is using haptic tools to capture hands movements and stereoscopic devices to represent the environment. We are proposing in this paper a simpler and less expensive interface to be used before the classical one or as an alternative to it. It contains simpler hardware sensor devices without haptic feedback, like the Leap Motion controller, and 3D monitors or TV sets to show the environment. The feedback includes visual modifications and sound effects when medical procedures are performed in the oral cavity, without the tactile feedback. The development of Virtual Reality methods and technologies will lower drastically the costs of the educational process and will increase its quality because of the extended number of situations and complexity levels a student has to face before the invasive treatments on patients. There can be designed simpler and extremely inexpensive tools to be used at home and to precede/assist/replace the training in a Virtual Reality Laboratory, extending further the advantages of this type of training. Keywords: dentistry, virtual reality, dental simulation. 1 VIRTUAL REALITY IN DENTISTRY Virtual Reality (VR) is used in healthcare to improve both diagnostics and treatment. In dentistry, there are in use several dental training systems, most of them using haptic interfaces. They allow dental students to practice dental procedures in a virtual environment, monitoring and assessing their performance. The systems incorporate in some cases Artificial Intelligence tutors, which propose the correct techniques and guide the students in their training. 1.1 State of the art The virtual reality training for dentistry started to develop at the beginning of the last decade, together with other VRs. Some of these systems use virtual reality and haptic devices as the main tools for assistance in dentistry education. For general information about the development of the field, one can check the several reviews [1-3] and for details, one can consult Table 1. We present here some of the most important systems for VR applied in dentistry with the year found for the first mentions and with useful references. Many of these systems remained at experimental level and some are used in academia, but there are a few that become commercial achievements. The advantages compared with the classical training come from the reduced expenses, wide range of disciplines (implantology, dentistry, endodontics and prosthesis) and of clinical cases that are proposed, possibility to repeat a procedure towards faultlessness, easy and fair evaluation of the training progress, possibility to adapt the learning pathway to the student (many times automatically), reduced demand for teaching staff and simple adaptation/ improvement of the system. Proceedings of INTED2016 Conference 7th-9th March 2016, Valencia, Spain ISBN: 978-84-608-5617-7 0279