Table 9. Characteristics of the selected studies in miscellaneous dental skills.

S. no	Author, Year, Country	VR system	Participants	Study design	Assessment tool	Tested outcome	Results
Abbreviations: AR, augmented reality; CST, cross sectional trial; DS, dental students; IVR, immersive virtual reality; VP, virtual patients; VR, virtual reality.
1	Allaire 2015, United States 82	VP in critical thinking assessment	(31) Senior hygiene DS	CST	Pre- and post-theoretical MCQs test and questionnaire	Skills of critical thinking, problem solving, and confidence	Insignificant increase in students’ scores although they reported VP an effective teaching method in enhancing self-confidence with real patients
2	Marei et al 2018, Saudi Arabia 83	Five VP for teaching professionalism	(65) First year DS	CST	Structured questionnaire before and after training	Students’ perception toward the use of VPs in developing ethical reasoning skills	High-fidelity VPs were significantly better for developing ethical reasoning skills
3	El Tantawi et al 2018, Saudi Arabia 84	DentLit video game to develop academic writing skills	(92) First year DS	Quasi experiment	Pre- and post-intervention assessment of students’ academic writing skills	1. Satisfaction of students with gamification 2. Perceived and actual improvement of academic writing	Significant improvement in actual writing. Overall satisfaction with game aspects was modest and significantly associated with improvement of writing
4	Takagi et al 2019, Japan 85	IVR for teaching home dental practice	(101) DS	CST	Survey before and after watching the VR teaching material	Changes in self-confidence regarding knowledge of home dental practice and treatment assistance	A significant increase in student’s knowledge confidence and assistance confidence scores
5	Zafar and Zachar 2020, Australia 86	HoloHuman AR to teach head and neck anatomy	(88) Second year DS	CST	Self-administered questionnaire before and after the use of AR	Perceptions of the AR	AR improved anatomical structures learning and understanding, and they felt more confident, but it should not replace traditional cadaver training
6	Liebermann and Erdelt. 2020, Germany 87	VR in learning dental morphologies	(48) Second year DS	CST	Questionnaire	Students’ acceptance	Most of the students understood dental morphologies much better compared with traditional textbook
7	Tsai et al 2020, United States 88	Mobile multimedia platform to teach dental diagnosis	(89) Predoctoral DS	CST	Baseline and 4-d later theoretical test and questionnaire	Basic dental diagnostic skills	Test scores increased significantly. Most students agreed on the ease of access and use of the platform and preferred Instagram stories over traditional lectures
8	Amini et al 2021, United States 89	IVR to teach social aspects of dental care delivery	(29) Dental residents	CST	Pre, immediately after and after 1-mo survey	Knowledge, skills, and attitude toward social determinants of health	Significant increased mean scores for cognitive, affective, and skill-based learning immediately post-training and no significant changes after 1-mo. Participants reported high satisfaction with the content and methods used in this training