Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are working on optimizing haptic interactive technologies to be more realistic and practical for fine hand work such as dentistry, and have released a dental training simulator called PerioSim that utilizes much of their work.
Demonstration video of the simulator:
Practice Makes Perfect with 3-D Dental Simulator
With the PerioSim, students guide a stylus on-screen that resembles an explorer -- a sharp, pointed instrument used by dentists during an examination. They can feel life-like tactile sensations as they navigate through various procedures.
Students can access PerioSim via the Internet. A realistic 3-D human mouth is shown in real-time, and the user can adjust the model position, viewpoint and transparency level.