Education 4.12 - Flipbook - Page 14
14
| Sunday, April 12, 2026
CCBC developed the first dental hygiene program in the United States to integrate immersive VR simulation training into its curriculum.
Area Universities Address Need
for Health Care Professionals
Curriculum expansion and diversification lead the way
By Carol Sorgen, Contributing Writer
W
hen Brionna Watson,
M.P.A., R.D.H., noticed
a gap in dental hygiene
training, she decided the
time was right to do something about
it. “While immersive Virtual Reality (VR)
simulation was being used in dental
schools, it had not previously been
implemented in dental hygiene programs nationally,” she says.
Supported by a grant from the Delta
Dental Community Care Foundation,
Watson, program director of the dental
hygiene program at the Community
College of Baltimore (CCBC), Dundalk
Campus, developed the first dental
hygiene program in the United States
to integrate immersive VR simulation
training into its curriculum. Further collaboration and support was provided
by Gleechi, a Swedish VR technology
software partner, Black Meta Agency,
a strategic technology and immersive
development partner, and NYU College
of Dentistry, for its academic collaboration for local anesthesia simulation
model integration.
“This project reflects a cross-sector
collaboration between education, technology and health care leaders,” says
Watson.
“The new VR lab introduces an
immersive, hands-on learning environment designed to meet the growing
demand for well-trained dental hygienists across Maryland and the nation,”
says Watson. “The initiative provides
students with an advanced, risk-free
training environment to practice clinical
techniques and build confidence before
treating live patients.”
Watson explains that the immersive
VR lab enables students to practice and
refine clinical techniques and skill sets
in a simulated environment, enhance
their critical thinking and real-time decision-making abilities, rehearse procedures repeatedly without risk to live
patients, build confidence prior to treating live patients, and reinforce proper
sequencing, infection control protocols,
and procedural accuracy to support
safe transitions into clinical care.
According to Watson, the technology serves as a supplemental training
tool, not a replacement for hands-on
clinical education. “It enhances student
preparedness, strengthens workforce
readiness, and expands access to innovative health care training at the community college level.”
Student response so far has been
positive, Watson offers, with students
reporting that they are gaining more
confidence before treating patients,
have less anxiety prior to entering clinical sessions, are more engaged with
the course material, feel more prepared
to begin real-world patient care, and for
students with diverse learning styles,
closed captioning and haptic feedback
allows them to practice repeatedly and
independently, reinforcing skills in a
way that traditional instruction alone
cannot provide.
“Maryland, like much of the nation,
faces a shortage of dental hygienists,”
says Watson. “By strengthening comNeed for Health Care Professionals,
continued on page 22
