Application of digital simulations for clinical assessment and documentation of temporomandibular disorders: a retrospective study.

OBJECTIVE: High-quality clinical documentation is critical for diagnostic accuracy and patient care; yet standardized assessment and formal training in temporomandibular disorder (TMD)-specific documentation remain limited in clinical education. This study evaluated whether a virtual patient-based learning (VPBL) platform improves quality and completeness of TMD-related clinical documentation among predoctoral dental students. METHODS: Third-year dental students completed a preintervention clinical note for a hypothetical patient with myofascial pain with referral following a 4-hour didactic session led by an orofacial pain (OFP) specialist. Two weeks later, students completed a postintervention clinical note for a comparable case following 1-hour VPBL simulation. Documentation quality was independently scored by two OFP specialists using a 4-point Likert scale (1 = "Poor" to 4 = "Excellent") across SOAP framework domains (subjective, objective, assessment, plan). Pre- and postintervention scores were compared using paired t-tests. RESULTS: Among 130 participants, postintervention scores were significantly higher (all P's < .001) for history taking (3.1 ± 0.9 vs 2.9 ± 0.9), clinical examination (3.2 ± 0.8 vs 2.7 ± 0.9), assessment (3.4 ± 0.6 vs 3.0 ± 0.7), treatment plan (3.6 ± 0.6 vs 3.2 ± 0.6), and overall documentation quality (13.3 ± 2.2 vs 11.7 ± 2.3). Results remained unchanged after accounting for prior clinical patient exposure. CONCLUSIONS: VPBL significantly improved quality of standardized TMD-related documentation, supporting its role in bridging didactic learning and clinical readiness in TMD practice.