Developing an All-Digital Workflow for Dental Skills Assessment: Part II, Surface Analysis, Benchmarking, and Grading

In Part I of this study, evidence was presented that visual inspection (VI) of dental student waxups exhibited low precision (ICC=0.332) and accuracy, resulting in questionable grade validity. VI inappropriately assesses morphology in part due to oversimplified grading rubrics and inappropriate application of ratio measurement to ordinal data. The aim of Part II of this study was to develop, apply, and compare with VI a digital assessment workflow and report the outcomes. After inclusion criteria were met, 67 (83%) student waxups were scanned with an intraoral scanner and analyzed using open source surface comparison software. Each was digitally compared to the homologous standard typodont tooth. Percentage contour variation within a stipulated tolerance was computed. The acceptable tolerance was derived from clinical literature reporting how contour deviations impact the biological and biomechanical stability of teeth and periodontium. Surface roughness of each waxup was also computed and compared with the reference teeth. A formula for digital assessment was developed and applied to each waxup. On average, digital grades exceeded the VI assessments, while correcting individual errors for greater accuracy and precision (ICC=0.866). Students were able to easily apply the digital workflow for visualization and accurate self-evaluation. In this study, a digital grading workflow was developed that used portable data formats and freely available open source analysis software, so the method could be introduced at any dental school where intraoral scanning is available.