The Impact of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination

Overview

This study aims to compare two different educational and assessment approaches used for teaching pre-extraction clinical evaluation skills to undergraduate dental students. Before performing a simple tooth extraction, students are expected to obtain a medical history, identify systemic risk factors, determine extraction indications, communicate effectively with patients, and make appropriate clinical decisions. Participants will be assigned to either an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)-based educational approach or a traditional teaching and assessment approach. Students' clinical performance, communication skills, clinical reasoning abilities, learning satisfaction, self-confidence, and examination-related anxiety will be evaluated and compared between groups. The findings of this study are expected to provide evidence regarding the effectiveness of OSCE in undergraduate dental education and contribute to the development of more effective training and assessment strategies for clinical competency acquisition.

Simple tooth extraction is one of the most frequently performed procedures in dental practice. Although the technical aspects of extraction are important, successful patient management requires accurate medical history taking, identification of systemic risk factors, appropriate treatment planning, clinical decision-making, and effective communication with patients. Deficiencies in these competencies may adversely affect patient safety and treatment outcomes. Traditional educational approaches in dental schools primarily focus on theoretical knowledge and may not adequately provide opportunities for students to demonstrate and apply their knowledge in realistic clinical scenarios. Consequently, variations may occur among students regarding diagnostic reasoning, risk assessment, communication skills, and clinical decision-making. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a structured and standardized assessment method widely used in health professions education. OSCE enables students to demonstrate clinical competencies through scenario-based stations that simulate real-life patient encounters. Previous studies have shown that OSCE can improve students' clinical performance, decision-making abilities, and educational satisfaction while providing a more objective assessment of clinical competence. However, concerns regarding examination-related anxiety and the resource-intensive nature of OSCE remain subjects of ongoing investigation. The present study aims to compare an OSCE-based educational and assessment model with a traditional teaching and assessment approach in the context of pre-extraction clinical evaluation. The educational content focuses on competencies required before performing a simple tooth extraction, including patient history taking, identification of systemic conditions that may affect treatment, determination of extraction indications, patient communication, informed consent procedures, and clinical reasoning. Students participating in the study will receive training according to their assigned educational method. Following the educational intervention, participants will be evaluated using standardized assessment tools. Primary outcomes will include measures of clinical competency and performance related to pre-extraction patient evaluation. Secondary outcomes will include learning satisfaction, self-confidence in learning, and examination-related anxiety. By examining both educational effectiveness and learner perceptions, this study seeks to determine whether OSCE-based training offers advantages over traditional educational approaches in developing clinical competencies required for safe and effective dental practice. The findings may contribute to evidence-based improvements in undergraduate dental curricula and provide additional data regarding the implementation of OSCE in dental education programs.