COVID-19 era: challenges and solutions in dental education

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus infecious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought a myriad of challenges to the dental education. Amidst the quarantine and lockdown measures, face-to-face education is disrupted around the globe. Dental educators have come up with innovative solutions to resume dental education remotely. Different online platforms are being utilised for didactic teaching and learning as well as for students' assessment and examination. Clinical learning has also shifted to virtual learning. Manikins and virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR)-based simulation devices along with haptic technology can be very helpful for skills training. However, some sorts of blended learning and virtual curriculum may be incorporated in dental education in the future. For this narrative review, a thorough in-depth review of the available literature, relevant to our field, was carried out. In this article, impact of COVID-19 on dental education has been discussed along with some solutions to these challenges.