Dentistry education requires a high level of manual dexterity, coordination, and correct working posture alongside theoretical knowledge. Enabling students to develop these skills in a controlled environment before starting clinical practice with real patients constitutes one of the important phases of the education process. The Dentistry Simulation Laboratory along with the Virtual Reality and Haptic Simulation Laboratory within the Bahçeşehir University (BAU) Faculty of Dentistry support students' preclinical training with different simulation technologies.

In the Dentistry Simulation Laboratory, students can practice on artificial patients in accordance with pre-determined fictional treatment plans. The system, called a phantom, mimics the patient's mouth, surrounding tissues, the dental chair, and different components of the clinical working environment. Thus, students can familiarise themselves with hand instruments, motorised devices, and units used in dentistry before moving on to clinical practice. Live demonstrations performed by educators can also be followed simultaneously on the monitors at the students' study desks.

One of the key objectives of simulation training is to help students develop hand-eye coordination and ergonomic working habits, rather than being limited to merely learning the steps of a procedure. In dentistry practices, the dentist's working posture, control over the tools used, and the correct execution of precise movements are among the fundamental parts of professional practice. Phantom systems provide a controlled educational environment where these skills can be repeated prior to application on a patient.

The haptic simulation technology at BAU adds the dimension of touch and force feedback to this experience. Haptic devices can simulate the densities of different dental tissues, such as enamel and dentine, by providing the student with a sensation of contact during the application. Practices carried out on virtual patients aim to develop the students' fine motor skills. Another feature of the laboratory is that personalized treatment scenarios can be created using intraoral scan data belonging to real patients. This structure allows digital data and simulation-based training to come together in the same workflow.

Alongside simulation laboratories, the educational infrastructure of the Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Dentistry also includes the Digital Dentistry Laboratory and the Clinical and Professional Skills Laboratory. While students develop their preclinical professional skills in these areas, they can also become familiar with intraoral scanners, CAD-CAM systems, clinical dentistry software, and VR/AR applications.

The simulation technologies used within the BAU Dental Campus create an educational environment aimed at enabling the student to combine theoretical knowledge with controlled practices. This structure, ranging from phantom patients to virtual reality and haptic systems, opens up space for students to repeat their professional skills and work on different scenarios before clinical practice.