Effects of Oral Radiology Practice Using Virtual Reality for Dental Hygiene Students

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of an educational program utilizing virtual reality (VR) on learning immersion and satisfaction and intention to use VR for performing various techniques among dental hygiene students.The study also intended to assess the adverse effects of using VR devices and analyze the intention to use VR to comprehensively evaluate the educational benefits of VR.Methods: A 31-item survey was conducted with 64 dental hygiene students who took the "Oral Radiology Practice" course from March to June 2024.Data were analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and Pearson's correlation coefficient using IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA), analysis of variance, and Pearson's correlation coefficient using IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0.Results: Immersion was positively correlated with satisfaction with the VR device (r=0.746) and negatively correlated with satisfaction with learning (r=-0.785)and intention to use VR (r=-0.779).The positive correlation between satisfaction with learning and intention to use VR was very strong (r=0.965).Immersion had a strong negative correlation with satisfaction with learning (r=-0.804)and intention to use VR (r=-0.801).Conclusion: Learners exhibited low immersion; however, their satisfaction with learning and intention to use VR were relatively high.These results suggest that, despite the limitations in immersion due to the technical constraints of VR practice, its practicality and effectiveness positively influenced satisfaction with learning.Rather than using VR training alone, applying a blended learning model appears to yield more effective educational outcomes.