Implant dentistry involves many specialized areas of dentology, necessitating continuing education to maintain competence and stay abreast of new developments in the field [17,18,19]. In preparation for this, our institution initially prepared traditional continuing education courses, which were typically delivered through various forms of demonstrations (such as videos, images). However, we quickly realized that this learning method lacked interactivity and detailed information on the surgical procedures [20, 21]. Among the various issues to consider in course preparation, we primarily focus on: (i) how to motivate learner engagement; (ii) how to enhance the effectiveness of course instruction; and (iii) how to demonstrate standardized surgical procedures. These issues form the foundation for expanding this experiential approach into future courses.
In the medical education system, case-based learning has been widely utilized, and various studies have demonstrated their positive effects on learners [22,23,24]. They have also been studied in the field of dentology, where case-based learning is considered one of the most promising methods [25,26,27]. Therefore, a good strategy is to create case-based surgical live demonstration courses that support dentist interaction to simulate practice. We designed the live surgery course for the first time focusing on dental implantology, which has been well received by both experienced and inexperienced dentists. The feedback received from implementing live surgery courses has been very favorable, with the main result being that participants are satisfied with this format because it eliminates time and location constraints and includes interactivity [28].
It is reported that surgeons and clinical students who have participated in live surgery courses identified the educational formats as beneficial and applicable to their practice, which is consistent with our findings [29, 30]. Based on our experience of conducting continuing education courses in recent years, we have realized that live demonstrations are excellent educational tools, especially when combining the benefits of live video and audio. Dentists attending these courses can see what the experts see and hear real-time explanations from them. After the surgery is completed, experts come to the course site to interact with participants and answer questions. Survey reports indicated higher satisfaction scores among participants exposed to live surgery courses compared to those attending traditional courses. In the continuing education courses conducted from 2019 to 2021, we employed pre-recorded video-based instruction. For the 2022–2024 curriculum, this format was modified to incorporate live surgical demonstrations. Questionnaire feedback indicated widespread endorsement of the live-streamed approach.
Pre-recorded videos are commended for the ability to pause, rewind, and review instructions multiple times in dental education [31,32,33]. We posit that live surgical demonstrations offer distinct advantages over pre-recorded videos: live surgery courses are highly valued for their interactivity, enabling dentists to directly communicate with experts and receive real-time guidance [9, 29]. Besides, unexpected intraoperative complications such as hemorrhage arose in live surgical demonstrations, during which experts dynamically demonstrated the complete decision-making process, encompassing problem identification, solution generation, and risk assessment [34]. This real-time exposure to cognitive workflows allowed dentists to engage with authentic surgical scenarios, thereby enhancing their acquisition of critical decision-making frameworks. In contrast, edited pre-recorded videos predominantly retained standardized procedural sequences, inadvertently fostering an idealized cognitive model among dentists that diverged from the complexities of real clinical practice. However, the live demonstrations method is limited by the requirement for a stable internet connection. Interestingly, our statistical analysis revealed no significant difference in the number of implant procedures performed between specialists and general dentists within two months following the course (Table 3). Potential explanations include: (i) enhanced confidence and surgical competency among general dentists through continuing education courses may have increased their procedural engagement, whereas specialists, often managing heavier clinical workloads, may have experienced capacity constraints limiting case volume growth; (ii) the relatively short follow-up duration may have failed to capture emerging disparities.
Additionally, this study is limited by the fact that conclusions about additional learning success from using live surgeries cannot be drawn. First, our study lacks objective indicators to verify whether these self-reported outcomes truly reflect actual learning outcomes or improvement in clinical competence. Potential selection bias may exist due to non-randomized allocation between the pre- and post-intervention cohorts, particularly regarding baseline characteristics such as clinical experience, despite our implementation of standardized questionnaires. Second, concurrent curricular enhancements during the study period, including updates to lecture contents and changes to expert members, may have introduced confounding variables, necessitating cautious interpretation of surgical live demonstration’s independent effects. Furthermore, the reliance on self-reported satisfaction metrics introduces risks of recall bias in participant responses. Recording learning success depends on the individual knowledge of each participant.
Based on questionnaire feedback, future studies could establish an objective competency assessment system that integrates subjective satisfaction with objective performance metrics such as post-training skill evaluations. The frequency and quality of real-time interactions during live demonstrations can also be evaluated. Additionally, a tiered live surgical demonstration teaching model could be explored, with content tailored to the clinical experience of dentists through curricula of graded difficulty. From the results of participants and comments from open-ended questions, we believe that the surgical live demonstration teaching method has been widely accepted and it may become a suitable tool to increase dentists’ engagement in continuing education courses.
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