Introduction: Today, virtual reality (VR) is used by physicians for clinical populations. The present study investigates the use of VR as a tool in oral health education where subjective and objective measures are used to determine how the VR system affects oral health. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate the effect of oral health education on dental plaque (PI) and gingival index (GI) of female high school students by the VR simulation method.Materials and methods: A randomized controlled field trial was performed on 90 female high school students in Birjand. Three school groups were randomly selected, the gingival index (GI) and plaque index (PI) being determined during clinical examination and recorded using standard methods. Overall, subjects were divided into three groups. The first received one-session VR-based oral health training, by wearing a headset. The second group received one-session verbal oral health education, and the third group (control) received no training. One month later, all three groups were re-examined and the GI and PI indices were measured.Results and discussion: The present study showed a statistically significant decrease in the GI of the VR group compared to other groups after the intervention (p=0.017), as well as a statistically significant decrease in the mean PI score of all teeth in the VR and verbal groups after the intervention. These changes were higher in the VR group than the other two groups, and also significantly higher in the verbal group, compared to the control.Conclusions: The findings of the present study show that both educational interventions, especially the VR, promoted oral health. The VR-based oral health education is significantly more effective and superior to the verbal method. It is also much easier in improving people’s oral health conditions instead of focusing on improving treatment techniques by increasing knowledge and people’s performance in controlling the PI and GI indices.
Keywords:- dental plaque
- gingival index
- modified Stillman’s technique
- oral health education
- Virtual reality simulator