Visiting virtual beach improves patient experience

Then, as you turn to continue along the coast path, feeling calm and relaxed, you suddenly hear your dentist say, “Fine, all done, you can take the headset off now”. For patients at one dental practice in Devon, England, such virtual reality encounters are resulting in demonstrably better experiences in the dentist’s chair.

In a study published on June 14, 2017, in the journal Environment & Behaviour, a team of researchers at the Universities of Plymouth, Exeter and Birmingham worked with Torrington Dental Practice in Devon to find out whether experiences like these could improve the patient’s experience during routine dental procedures, such as fillings and tooth extractions.

What the patient sees can be viewed here – https://youtu.be/n5kjETt8cZI

Patients who had agreed to take part in the study were randomly allocated to one of three conditions:

a) standard care (i.e. normal practice)

b) a virtual walk around Wembury beach in Devon (using a headset and handheld controller)