The dental community has expressed a growing interest in the metaverse and its applications. How come?
What is the Metaverse?
The metaverse is a virtual environment that simulates the natural world via multisensory interactions with 3D objects. In other words, the metaverse ecosystem is a 3D world simulation or twin world.
Think of the Metaverse as riding your bike in the digital twin world of Zwift.
Constant innovation
Dentists have seen a wave of innovative technologies, like reconstructive
dentistry, implant dentistry, aesthetic dentistry, orthodontics etc, that did not exist earlier.
The implementation of the digital workflow to dental practices and universities has proven its efficiency, such as a reduction in waste, time, increased cost effectiveness, reduction in the time and number of appointments and higher patient satisfaction
More recently, the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) has simplified the diagnosis of clinical cases and planning, patient treatment acceptance, as well as the learning experience of our dental students.
Just another innovation
Dentists see the Metaverse as just another innovation.
Firstly, it could increase education, not only with physicians, but also children, underprivileged people or other caregivers.
For dentists, it could provide improved clinical decision tools and become a working platform for healthcare researchers.
References
𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗵𝗳𝗮𝗿, 𝗞𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻. (2022). Metaverse, Crypto, and NFTs in Dentistry. Education Sciences. 12. 538. 10.3390/educsci12080538.
