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Open research questions in Dental Research and COVID-19

461 gap statements mined from Dental Research and COVID-19 papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 3,959 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Future research should focus on developing water-saving processes more environmentally sustainable alternatives to resin-based composite (RBC), environmentally sustainable alternatives to antibiotics and green-synthesized zirconium nanoparticles.

    Green Dentistry and Sustainability in Oral Healthcare: A Systematic Review · 2026 · DOI

  • The gap we are addressing is not merely a theoretical one, it is a practical, clinical vulnerability where practitioners are generating permanent biometric maps of patients without tailored regulatory guidance or sufficient ethical awareness, highlighting a practical and clinically relevant translational gap that has not yet been adequately addressed in dentistry.

    Ethical and regulatory aspects of facial scanning in dentistry: a scoping review · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on validating the clinical translation of AI-generated smile designs by assessing their impact on restorative accuracy, material performance, and long-term patient satisfaction following definitive prosthodontic treatment.

    Clinical and Patient Comparison of AI and Expert Digital Smile Design: A Prospective Paired Study · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on long-term clinical outcomes and the development of standardized guidelines to optimize the use of VRHS in dental education.

    Bridging the Gap: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Haptic Simulators Compared to Traditional Methods in Preclinical Dental Education · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on longitudinal and multicenter studies to assess the long-term impact of VRHS training on clinical performance and patient outcomes.

    Bridging the Gap: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Haptic Simulators Compared to Traditional Methods in Preclinical Dental Education · 2026 · DOI

  • The findings emphasise that technological innovation alone is insufficient; meaningful improvements require integration within a comprehensive, patient-centered care model.

    Utilising Teledentistry for Interdisciplinary Oral Assessment in Older Patients: An International Cross-Sectional Survey · 2026 · DOI

  • These findings are consistent with broader digital health literature showing that usability alone is insufficient to sustain engagement or satisfaction in the absence of meaningful feedback, transparency, and perceived responsiveness.

    Digital Dental Triage and Access to Care: A Qualitative Study of Experiences in a Teaching Hospital · 2026 · DOI

  • Although most students found the 25-min duration appropriate, over one-third felt it was insufficient, suggesting a mismatch with the rapid recall demands of CBT environments.

    Student Perceptions of Key Terminology Tests in Dental Physiology Education: A Single-Institution Evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • Although the overall findings support the growing role of AI in prosthodontics, negative and inconsistent findings—though less frequently reported—underscore the need for caution when considering near-term clinical translation.

    Mapping the Influence of Artificial Intelligence in Prosthodontics: A Scoping Review of the Current Trends and Challenges · 2026 · DOI

  • Conventional teaching methods lack hands-on practice and real-time feedback. Traditional approaches fail to replicate the dynamic nature of real clinical scenarios. There is a need for advanced training systems that provide personalized guidance and real-time feedback.

    An immersive virtual reality teaching system for edentulous implant surgery: enhancing interaction, precision feedback, and skill acquisition · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should consider a simultaneous examination of both “reflection-in-action” and “reflection-on-action”. Hence, future studies should consider a mixed-method analysis that might produce more robust findings regarding students’ self-reflection on their implant skill development.

    Qualitative Analysis of Student Reflections on Preclinical Dental Implant Education · 2024 · DOI

  • Within the limitations of this study, a single session of deliberate error-based learning did not produce measurable advantages over conventional teaching in a phantom-head radiography setting.

    Deliberate Error-Based Learning in Dental Radiography: An Educational Study · 2026 · DOI

  • These findings should not be interpreted as evidence that such considerations are absent from clinical practice, but rather that they are often insufficiently documented in scientific literature.

    Ethical and regulatory aspects of facial scanning in dentistry: a scoping review · 2026 · DOI

  • Future multi-site studies with higher response rates, validated instruments and objective curriculum audits are warranted which should include evaluation of experiential education such as simulation.

    Evaluating Undergraduate Dental Curricula on Oral Health Care for Autistic Persons in Australia and New Zealand—A Cross-Sectional Study · 2026 · DOI

  • The number of participating students was limited by the size of the dental program and by the need to include participants with an adequate and homogeneous baseline level of theoretical and practical endodontic knowledge.

    From Research to Education: When Natural Teeth Are the Only Reference—Student Perceptions of PolyJet™ 3D-Printed Teeth in Endodontic Training · 2026 · DOI

  • The benchmarking results confirm that model accuracy alone is insufficient when selecting object detectors for IoT-enabled systems.

    Benchmarking Lightweight YOLO Object Detectors for Real-Time Hygiene Compliance Monitoring · 2025 · DOI

  • Sample-size justification was consistently underreported, regardless of sample size or publication year, with no association between reporting and either factor.

    Statistical errors and reporting deficiencies in clinical prosthodontic publications, 2019–2024 · 2026 · DOI

  • This study adds to the sparse literature that examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the self-reported clinical skill set of dental students and residents.

    The Impact of COVID-19 on African American Dental Students’ Self-Confidence in Implementing Specific Clinical Treatments · 2026 · DOI

  • The satisfaction of students using Simodont® in the preclinical practices of the Pediatric Dentistry II subject is inconclusive, with ambiguous results.

    Implementation of Virtual Reality in Preclinical Pediatric Dentistry Learning: A Comparison Between Simodont® and Conventional Methods · 2025 · DOI

  • The present study demonstrates that students perform better when tested with specimens on which they were initially trained with, a result that is consistent with established expectations. While standardized plastic models serve as a valuable supplementary tool for initial learning, our findings establish that natural human teeth create superior educational outcomes.

    Comparing the Effectiveness of Human Extracted Teeth and Plastic Teeth in Teaching Dental Anatomy · 2025 · DOI

  • The influence of operator experience on accuracy remains inconclusive and appears to be less significant in modern systems, although it still affects scanning time, efficiency, and management of difficult clinical conditions.

    Optimizing Digital Impressions: A Review of Factors Affecting Intraoral Scanner Accuracy · 2026 · DOI

  • This pattern was evident for both tooth morphology and craniofacial osteology, indicating that the benefit of tactile engagement is not limited to a specific anatomical category.

    From Images to Specimens: The Impact of Tactile, Three-Dimensional Learning in Dental Anatomy · 2026 · DOI

  • Within the limitations of the present study, PolyJet™ 3DPT fabricated with RGD525™ demonstrated promising applicability for preclinical endodontic training.

    From Research to Education: When Natural Teeth Are the Only Reference—Student Perceptions of PolyJet™ 3D-Printed Teeth in Endodontic Training · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigating the effects of increased VR training intensity, - Exploring the application of VR-based training in other dental surgical…

    An immersive virtual reality teaching system for edentulous implant surgery: enhancing interaction, precision feedback, and skill acquisition · 2026 · DOI

  • As dental education increasingly incorporates digital technologies, these findings highlight both the potential benefits and the important limitations of integrating haptic simulation into preclinical operative dentistry curricula.

    Comparative Performance of Haptic Virtual Simulation vs. Conventional Training in Class V Cavity Preparation: A Paired In Vitro Study · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Dental Research and COVID-19

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research should focus on long-term clinical outcomes and the development of standardized guidelines to optimize the use of VRHS in dental education (“Bridging the Gap: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Haptic Simulators Compared to…”, 2026); (2) There is a need for advanced training systems that provide personalized guidance and real-time feedback (“An immersive virtual reality teaching system for edentulous implant surgery:…”, 2026); (3) Future multi-site studies with higher response rates, validated instruments and objective curriculum audits are warranted which should include evaluation of experiential education such as simulation (“Evaluating Undergraduate Dental Curricula on Oral Health Care for Autistic…”, 2026); (4) Future research should consider a simultaneous examination of both “reflection-in-action” and “reflection-on-action” (“Qualitative Analysis of Student Reflections on Preclinical Dental Implant…”, 2024). 461 gap statements have been mined from Dental Research and COVID-19 papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 3,959 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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