A digital approach for the teaching of dental anatomy: 6-year feedback following implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Resumo

Objective: to describe the 6-year feedback of the digital teaching that has been set up since the era of the Covid-19 pandemic in the framework of practical dental anatomy work in a French Faculty. Methods: Hands-on dental anatomy sessions (drawing and wax-up exercises) were adapted to be compatible with both face-to-face and distance learning. Pre-recorded videos detailing the entire work process were made available online via the Faculty's website. Student feedback was collected annually between 2020 and 2025 through satisfaction ratings (0–10) for the drawing and wax-up tutorial videos, perceived autonomy after viewing the videos, and a simplified User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ). Continuous variables were compared across years and between genders using two-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests, while categorical responses regarding autonomous work were analyzed with Fisher's test. Results: A total of 457 students responded to the questionnaire over six years (approximately 76 per graduating class), with women representing 69.15% of participants (n=316). Both drawing and wax-up tutorial videos were rated highly each year (global means of 8.66±1.18 and around 8/10, respectively), with no statistically significant differences across successive promotions. Drawing scores did not differ significantly between genders, although a non-significant trend suggested that women rated wax-up videos more favorably than men. UEQ results indicated that overall learning evaluation, as well as hedonic and pragmatic qualities, were rated as "Excellent" by the full cohort and by women specifically, while men rated the pragmatic quality as "Good." Conclusions: This six-year experience demonstrates that digital tools initially developed as an emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic proved durable and well accepted beyond the crisis period. While student satisfaction was consistently high across all cohorts, this report does not allow conclusions regarding actual skill acquisition. This experience may serve as a source of inspiration for educators facing similar challenges, subject to local adaptation and cross-validation before broader implementation.