The Impact of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination

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.

Inclusion Criteria: * Fourth-year student enrolled in the Faculty of Dentistry. * Completion of theoretical and practical training in tooth extraction. * Age 18-25 years. * Voluntary agreement to participate and provision of informed consent. Exclusion Criteria: * Enrollment in an academic year other than the fourth year or at another university. * Refusal to participate or withdrawal of informed consent.