Preliminary Evaluation of a Dental Virtual Standardized Patient in Endodontic Clinical Reasoning and Decision‐Making: Face and Construct Validity

Aim To develop and evaluate a dental virtual standardized patient (D‐VSP) integrating natural‐language intent recognition, a high‐fidelity haptic simulator, and chairside visuals, to establish its face validity as a training tool for endodontic clinical reasoning and decision‐making, and to examine its construct validity as a summative assessment instrument. Methodology The D‐VSP delivered a structured clinical workflow comprising six sections: history‐taking, clinical examination, documentation, ancillary testing, diagnosis, and treatment planning. Dental students from the Stomatology College of Chongqing Medical University were classified into four pre‐specified groups according to their self‐reported clinical experience. All participants completed two virtual standardized patient cases: uncomplicated crown fracture (UCF) and symptomatic irreversible pulpitis (SIP). They then filled out two questionnaires assessing perceived usability and fidelity on 5‐point Likert scales. Statistical analysis employed one‐way analysis of variance or the Kruskal–Wallis test, with Bonferroni correction applied for multiple comparisons. The significance level was set at p < 0.05, and effect sizes were reported as eta‐squared ( η 2 ). Results A total of 149 students were recruited (data recovery rate: 96.64%). All groups rated the D‐VSP highly for its usability and fidelity. SIP test scores differed significantly among the groups ( H = 10.914, p = 0.012, η 2 = 0.057). In addition, significant differences were found in the clinical examination section ( H = 8.219, p = 0.042, η 2 = 0.037) and the diagnosis section ( H = 22.063, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.136) of the SIP test. For the UCF case, only the clinical examination section showed a significant difference ( H = 8.496, p = 0.037, η 2 = 0.039). Conclusion This study established face and construct validity for the D‐VSP, supporting its potential as a tool for teaching and assessing clinical reasoning in endodontics.