Revolutionizing Dental Education with AI

Maggie Grady: 0:04

Welcome to the Teaching Table, a monthly podcast where we'll engage in insightful conversations about the dynamic world of teaching, learning and technology within higher education. Brought to you by the University at Buffalo Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation or CATT and made possible by the generous support of the Genteels' Excellence in Teaching Fund.

Maggie Grady: 0:26

This podcast aims to shed light on the pathways to educational excellence. I'm your host, Maggie Grady, a learning designer in CATT. Today, I'm delighted to be joined by Dr. Nathalia Andrade from the UB Dental School and recent recipient of the AI Seed Fund, where she is transforming periodontal and dental care through artificial intelligence. So, Dr. Andrade, congratulations first on receiving the AI Seed Fund for your recent project entitled Transforming Periodontal and Dental Care Powered by Artificial Intelligence, or AI. For those of you that are not familiar, the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs dedicated $50,000 to be used for seed funds to enable faculty across the campus to integrate generative AI into course and curricular redesign. Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about your winning project and what the funding means to you and how you plan on implementing the funds to your goal?

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 1:29

Yes, sure, thank you for the compliments, and this fund was applied to support the new course periodontal and dental technologies that I designed. My specialty, periodontics. It's a very surgical specialty and have many softwares that are AI-based that we can use, and my intention, my goal with this course was to introduce new technologies that can be incorporated to the patient care to our students, with main focus on AI, digital planning and microsurgery. And as a new faculty at UB, it was a great stimulus to take the risk and go ahead with the idea of this new course, and they helped me to bring experts in AI-based softwares to teach the students new techniques that I don't know, because I know many of them, but I don't know all of them, so it was good to connect with experts from other schools too. And also I choose faculty that they are applying AI-based softwares in large scales in their school so they could teach us how we could do that here at UB, what we need to get there.

Maggie Grady: 2:37

Can you tell our listeners how do you incorporate the latest advancements in technologies in dental medicine in your teaching and then how do you believe that these methods may be adapted to other disciplines?

Maggie Grady: 2:55

Yeah, sure, I believe the first step is to create a strong foundation of knowledge. Even before we start to teach them how to use the technology, they need to know what they're doing and how they would do without the tools we have nowadays. And it's also important to take in consideration and highlight that we have many sources of information. We have Google, youtube, students can take courses in other places, and we also have students with different levels of experience in the classroom. In my case, I also had faculty attending the classes because they wanted to learn, so there were people with different levels of experience and background in the classroom. That's why I felt it was really important starting by creating this strong foundation and make sure everybody was in the same level before we even start to teach about the technologies. So for that, I divided the course in modules models and the first lecture was always a review of basic principles. In my case, I teach mainly about surgery, so basic principles about how to do the procedure, and as I was teaching, that I was always focused on evidence-based concepts, but mainly how to apply this concept in the clinic. So there's a concept, how, at the moment, we are doing the surgery or we're planning the surgery, how we use that concept. So not just learn about the concept itself, but how to apply. And then, after this first lecture that was the same thing for all the models I would start with the technical part, so actually how to use the technologies. So, for example, if it's a software, they would have a guide where I explain exactly how to open the software, where to click, how to do. But together I also put information like hey, before click here, remember all these concepts I teach in the other class. You need to have all that in your mind before you go ahead. Or if it's a software that uses AI and AI is doing something for you, what is the checklist that you need to make sure it's all right and AI did right, or if there is something you need to fix . .

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 5:01

And then, after this part, this for me, was the foundation. They learn the basic concepts. They learn the critical, the foundation. They learn how. They learn the basic concepts. They learn the critical thinking. They learn how to do the technical part, the last part of each model. I do problem-based learning activities, also known as pbl, activities that allow the students to build new knowledge on the topic of what they have learned. This way they can be creative and come up with new ideas and also make sure they are being able to use what they learn in a real situation. So we had simulations and zones and debates in between the students for this part of the activities.

Maggie Grady: 5:37

So you have strong foundational skills. You go back and you double check and make sure that everybody's on the same page, which is awesome. That's a great example of teaching and the best part of teaching and then you go ahead and you put some active learning in . And you make it a little bit exciting, engaging for those students, which is awesome. Good job.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 5:56

I think it's really important to make learning fun. It's important for us and for the students because we spend so much time together. Especially this course I was giving to them after they were the whole day in the clinic, was at night after everything, so they're tired, and something I think is really important is respect the students and their time, and something I do too. I don't put myself as an upper level of the students and I don't think faculty should be doing that. I tell them that we are in the same level and I'm learning together with them. I was learning new techniques from the speakers. I was learning new ways to do things from the ideas the students were having during the course. I was learning how to teach because I never gave a course about that before, so it needs to be a good experience and fun for everybody. I agree with you.

Maggie Grady: 6:47

How do you balance theoretical knowledge with practical skills in your curriculum to prepare students for the real world? You kind of alluded to the fact that you're already using AI and the fact that you're having them do debates or problem-based learning. So that might help with that. But what elements of that approach could you effectively translate to other disciplines or our listeners that may not be in the dental field or in a medical field? How can they take some of your teaching style and apply it to their own teaching style?

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 7:19

That's actually very important to me and something that I did that I think can help other people too. I reach out to part-time faculty and to alumni students and I ask them what they think that they should have learned during their time in school or what their students should be learning for the part-times. They work part-time in the clinic and part-time at school, so they have a very good idea of the real world and I ask them what do you think we should be teaching? I ask the alumni students what you wish you had learned regarding technology while you were at school, because I wanted to make sure what I was teaching was actually useful for the students when they leave, and they were ready for the real world.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 8:01

And right, right, and did, I also did. .

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 8:03

I asked the students what they wanted to learn, because they go to conferences, they look on Instagram people doing things and they read articles about different techniques, and they have a big desire . . So Nathalia I asked them what do you want to learn during this course? And they actually gave me a lot of ideas and insights and I did my best to incorporate everything they asked me. I love that. That was really good and, like I said before for the class. I always do my lectures, I prepare my lectures trying to connect with the clinic. So, especially the very first lectures that were about the principles and the basic concepts, I always connect that with how they apply. Like I said before, it's not just learn about the concept itself, but it's how to use the concept and why the concept is important for you.

Maggie Grady: 8:57

So I think that makes sense. Yes, I'd love that. I'd like that you combine the two and that makes a more enriching experience for your students. It sounds like you're an awesome teacher, thank you. So, natalia, in terms of reaching your students, what strategies do you employ to adapt your teaching methods to accommodate different learning styles and ensure all students grasp the material effectively? Like you already mentioned that, you do the foundational work, so that's applaud to that. Any other techniques that you can share with us? And then, lastly, on that question, how could those strategies be implemented in other academic areas to improve overall educational outcomes?

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 9:38

Like I said before, I divide the courses in different parts and in each one of these parts they have different kind of activities to learn about the same topic. So different learning styles of the students. I think I end up reaching each one of these different styles because they have the chance to learn about the same topic in different ways. So, like I said, I have theoretical classes with most of them with me, also with speakers that they bring a different methodology, a different view. So maybe someone that didn't understand the way I said is going to understand with the other person that came from completely different background of me. Hands-on simulations. So a lot of different activities.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 10:23

But also what I think was very important is that all the students have the chance to have a moment one-one with me. So if they were planning a case of their own patients, they had a moment in the course that they can come sit with me and I will go step-by-step with them how to do. So at this moment I could check if there was something missing, some points that they missed. I could at this moment do a more personalized approach to each student and highlight their strengths, check their weakness and correct. So that was very important. That was hard to do because I was trying to keep the group small because I wanted to have these moments, but it just grow and had many people. But I keep doing. I think that was a moment that was important.

Maggie Grady: 11:07

I think that exactly what you said, by just explaining it maybe a different way, or bringing somebody else in for their explanation, sometimes goes, you know, a long way. So, moving into innovation, what innovative teaching techniques or tools have you found most effective in dental education, and how do you think you could adapt that for others to use in their own disciplines?

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 11:32

When we are thinking about innovation in the classroom, we need to consider that there are good and bad points of each. For example, softwares that incorporating AI. They can really speed up the process but they can also make mistakes. So it's really important to teach technical skills but also the critical thinking to the students. One activity that the students really loved and I thought was really good was the simulation. Give a real case for them to do the planning of the surgery and go through the software from beginning to end in the process. This activity is supposed to be two hours and I don't know how many hours I was there with them because they didn't want to leave. They did the exercise I gave to them and then they brought their own case and they want to keep doing. They were very happy that they were being able to do by themselves. So that was rewarding to me, see how they were happy.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 12:22

Sure, and another activity that was really nice and I think other faculty could apply for their courses was I did a group case presentation where they need to do the treatment plan of a case that was a more complex case. And then after they present, they were divided into groups, and after they present the other group needs to come up with a different treatment plan. And then they had a debate about the surgical design and outcome, the guide, design, outcome and everything. And together with that we had the other faculty from the department being judges for the debate. And that was amazing because I had the chair of my department that's been at UB for more than 30 years participate in the debate. Even the other faculty maybe were not too much into the technological part, but they know a lot about the surgical and the principles and everything. So they were helping to check if the students were actually engaging on all that and including all that in their treatment plan.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 13:28

And it was a fun moment. We had the whole department together playing, discussing, so I think it was good not just for the learning process but also for our, it was a social moment. For our friendship.

Maggie Grady: 13:41

Building a nice community. Yep, that's nice. I like that you take the experience the seasonal professor you mentioned, and also with the new, and kind of meshing them all together. So you're seeing the old techniques and the new techniques. I love that.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 13:58

They actually attended almost all the classes.

Maggie Grady: 14:04

To see a fresh take on what they've taught and to see a different perspective. I can totally see that.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 14:10

And they gave great insights during the lectures too, so it was good to have them there.

Maggie Grady: 14:16

So, as a follow-up to the previous question, how do you assess the effectiveness of your teaching methods and innovation, and what assessment techniques could be valuable for educators in other fields.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 14:28

My initial goal with this course was to introduce students to technologies that can be used for patient care in their daily routine, and my main assessment was actually seeing this happening in the clinic. The students start to use the technology they learn in the course in real patients. So I saw students using microscope to do surgeries or doing a surgery using a guide that was 3D printed and planned by them using the softwares. So that, for me, showed me that the goal was achieved and we are in the beginning, but we are starting this process with our students. But, of course, I also did assessments during the course. At the end of each module, I wanted to check if the students were actually being able to process all the information and apply the information.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 15:17

For me, the assessment is part of the learning process, so that's why I also use PBL activities as part of the learning process.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 15:33

And I don't want to then to just I don't want to do a test and make sure they memorize an answer and they're being able to answer that in the test, but also they being able to come up with new ideas, and I need to say they had very good ideas of things that could be done in a different way and I believe that happened because they had, because we built that good foundation, so they had a real knowledge in their mind. They are not just memorizing one sentence to put in a test. They actually know about the topic so they can create something new. And also, I think it was important that they felt safe to risk. We create an environment that they feel they can speak their mind. It can be wrong, it can be right, and I can guide them through that, but they have the freedom to speak and from that it came up so many nice ideas. .

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 16:18

That made me really, really happy

Maggie Grady: 16:20

Right, and you were talking about AI software. What software do you use? c. A b B S

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 16:26

We can use AI in dentistry for different parts, so I would say the treatment of the patient. Have the diagnosis when we understand what's going on with the patient, then we do the treatment itself and then we do the maintenance of the treatment and make sure it's everything going well after. So we can use AI for all these parts. My course was mainly focused on the treatment because we were doing the surgeries. We are actually actively treating the patient and using the softwares for that. So we use softwares for digital planning. That's 3Shape, codeagnostic. There are many different that they can use for that Mesh Mixer, blue Sky, I actually that's a nice point I make sure they were learning all different kind of softwares because when they leave school they maybe are not going to have access to the one we have in here, so I want them to have contact with the other softwares too, so anywhere they go they will be able to apply what they learn.

Maggie Grady: 17:26

Can you share examples of how you have adapted your teaching methods in response to student feedback or the learning like. T hey how can others in different disciplines use that same approach?

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 17:39

Yes, I did a survey with my students asking there what they liked in the course. What they didn't like, they knew from the beginning there was a new course and I was coming up with new ways to teach that that I didn't know if it would work or not. So I would need their feedback a lot to improve. And it was a surprise for me that content they loved the lectures with the foundations. I thought it not like because they would repeat things they theoretically already know, and I think that's something that can help other faculty to start with building this.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 18:19

That they feel more confident to do what they need to do. In our case, we are doing surgeries in patients, so they need to feel confident about their own knowledge. And something I learned too is that they definitely don't like Zoom classes. It's not that they didn't like the contact or the speaker. They said they don't like that. It was through Zoom. So that was the big learning for me. They said like, we don't like that. They were very clear about it.

Maggie Grady: 18:44

Yes kind learning. For me they sounded like we don't like that. They were clear about that kind of wraps up our conversation, so I hope that the conversation encourages others to try new teaching approaches and strategies, take some of those that we were just talking about in different ways to engage and reach today's student. So again, thank you for taking the time to meet with me today and do you have any final thoughts that you want to share with our audience?

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 19:03

yes, I want to say two things. The first I think it's really important to to be able to engage the students, explain to them the importance of what they are learning or, like I said before, ask them what they. want to learn and start. from there, because if they feel that's important, they will be motivated to be there. They want to learn. But I think to keep this engagement you need to make sure that all the time they're there is useful. They're using that for something in the future and they are aware of that. They're understanding when they are going to use that. So I think that makes everything go smooth and better and reach the goal.

Dr. Nathalia Andrade: 19:41

And the other thing I want to say I just want to thank you everybody from my department and from my school. I had a lot of support from the leadership of the school, the leadership . of Nathalia my department, the other faculty Everybody helped me a lot IT buffalo. edu/ catt dental school, everybody helped me so much ubcatt@buffalo.edu course happen. Also, my friends from other schools that accept to come here and give lectures. And especially, I want to say thank you to the students, of course, because they made the course so nice and so special for me. They were so dedicated to everything and that makes me so happy. Like I said before, for me this course was a dream coming true, especially when I saw the results at the end, so I really need to thank my my students.

Maggie Grady: 20:24

Oh, I love it. Can we just clone you? We need a whole bunch. Thank you for joining us today at the teaching table. We've discussed innovative teaching approaches using AI with dental professor Dr Natalia Andrade. And be sure to connect with us online at buffaloedu slash cat, that's C-A-T-T. Or email us at ubcatt@buffalo.edu.