The Effect of Stress on Clinical and Preclinical Dental Students’ Performance at King Abdulaziz University

Objectives: It is well known that dental training constitutes a stressful environment among undergraduate students. The aim of this study is to identify the effect of stressors on students' clinical and preclinical performance. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was designed using a modified Dental Environment Stress questionnaire that was distributed to 288 undergraduate students within the Faculty of Dentistry of King Abdulaziz University from September 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017. Results: One hundred and twenty-four (49.6%) respondents were females and 126 were males (50.4%). Sixth year students showed the highest responses (27.20%), while third year students showed the lowest responses (14.40%). The most stressful factors were from the theoretical domain, while the least stressful factors were from the faculty domain as well as the personal domain. ANOVA statistical tests were used to assess the mean difference in the levels of stress between the academic years of the students, which proved significant for almost all questions. The students' grades were used to measure dental performance, which recorded improvement between first and second semesters. Conclusion: The present results indicate that recorded grades demonstrated an ascending improvement in confidence; even though the results also demonstrated that stress proportionally increases over the academic years. Our dynamic ever-evolving curriculum can explain this condition and represents the cornerstone of controlling stress among our students.