Clinical experience improves academic outcomes in dental Oral surgery education

IntroductionThis paper aimed to determine if the level of a dental student's clinical experience in oral surgery influences the student's oral surgery academic outcomes.Materials and MethodsThe oral surgery clinical activity and academic outcomes for all students who completed their dental training in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 from the University of Sydney were analysed for correlation.ResultsThe clinical activity performed by 313 students was recorded. There was a weak, but statistically significant, Pearson correlation between total dental extractions and academic outcomes (r = .243, p =