DGA: Taking Training into a New Reality

Technical training is entering a whole new dimension thanks to a system developed by Digident Global Academy (DGA). Wearing a virtual reality headset, a technician can go through the steps of a design workflow or learn a stain-and-glaze process before performing the task at the bench.

“Anything you can break down into steps can be built into virtual reality; for example, finishing a zirconia crown starts with rough finishing, then thinning the margin and so on,” says Ryan Napolitano, Sr. Director, Product Development & Innovation, Leixir Dental Laboratory Group, which uses the system. “The key word is immersive. When you put on the headset, there are no distractions and you’re fully engrossed. Training becomes much deeper.”

DGA is the brainchild of dentist Manish Chhabra, who saw a need for a better approach to training while working at Leixir Dental Group’s design center in India, which received over 300,000 scans daily, many of them problematic and either requiring re-scans or adjustments in the design.