Innovative preclinical dental teaching and learning at the University of Manitoba.

The University of Manitoba faculty of dentistry began efforts over a decade ago to integrate the most up-to-date dental education technologies into its preclinical laboratory environment. The faculty now houses 2 modern preclinical laboratories and a dental simulation laboratory that all use high-tech equipment to promote learning. The mix of technologies and equipment found within these laboratories has evolved, based on input and feedback from teaching staff, the administration and dental students themselves. All of the labs are used extensively, not only during scheduled classes for firstand second-year dentistry and dental hygiene students, but also for self-directed learning and continuing dental education courses. Manitoba dental students benefit from the modern features of the 2 preclinical laboratories, called the Brass and Hart laboratories. These labs were named in honour of Drs. George Brass and Harold Hart, 2 founding members of the University of Manitoba’s faculty of dentistry in 1958. Dr. Brass went on to serve as head of the department of restorative dentistry until 1979, while Dr. Hart was head of the department of removable prosthodontics until 1975. The Brass laboratory is equipped with a simulator torso and simulator heads, while the Hart laboratory has simulator heads along with handpiece controls and air–water syringes. Both the Brass and Hart laboratories have 30 individual lab stations, each with a mounted computer monitor that displays images controlled from the instructor’s main computer. Each lab bench incorporates a builtin vacuum, a dremel unit, overhead lighting and intraoral unit lights. The instructor’s station is equipped with a telestrater, VCR, slide projector, flexible intraoral cameras and a document viewer. Instructors can project images from either a light and Zeiss microscope, a laptop computer or camera. The main teaching station has 2 wireless microphones that allow an instructor to project audio through the overhead speakers. With all of these tools at the Innovative Preclinical Dental Teaching and Learning at the University of Manitoba