Evaluating the effect of digital technology on the learning of orthodontic cephalometric measurement

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating digital technology into cephalometric measurement teaching. Methods: In total, 94 undergraduates of stomatology were recruited and randomly allocated to two groups. According to the cross-over design, both groups completed cephalometric measurements by the traditional hand-drawn method and digital technology (the Dolphin software) in different order. In the traditional hand-drawn method, students depicted the outline of the craniofacial anatomical structures on sulfuric transfer paper first, then marked the measurement points and completed the measurement of line spacings and angles; by digital technology, they marked the points in the software and adjust the automatically generated outlines of the structures to obtain the results. Two professional orthodontists were invited as instructors and their measurements were set as standards. An online questionnaire was also used to investigate students' attitudes toward digital technology being used in the cephalometric teaching process. Results: There were significant differences of students’ measurements ( P (1-SNA)<0.01, P (1-SNB)=0.01 and P (1-L1-NB (mm))<0.01; SNA: sella-nasion-subspinale angle, SNB: sella-nasion-supramental angle, L1-NB (mm): the distance from the lower central incisor tip to the nasion-supramental plane) between the traditional method and digital technology. Besides, the results of most items by digital technology were closer to the standards than those by the traditional method, including five items with statistical significance ( P (2-SNB)<0.05, P (2-L1-NB (mm))<0.01, P (2-FMA)<0.05, P (2-FMIA)<0.05, P (2-IMPA)<0.01), while three items were the opposite ( P (2-SNA)<0.05, P (2-ANB (mm))<0.01, P (2-NA-PA)<0.01). The questionnaire showed more students preferred digital technology (33%) as a better teaching method than the traditional method (2%) and 72% of participants thought they had mastered 50-80% of cephalometric knowledge after the course. Conclusions: This study demonstrated effectiveness and acceptance of the course applying digital technology during the cephalometric teaching process.