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Introduction: The development of early self‐assessment skills and determining its correlation with academic performance could provide evidence to alter dental curricula. The aim of this retrospective study was to examine the relationships between students' early self‐assessment ability in waxing and three different evaluation methods (waxing assessment, written examinations, and tooth identification examination) in a dental anatomy course. Materials and Methods: The dental anatomy scores during the academic years of 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 from two cohorts of second‐year pre‐doctoral dental students at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine were analyzed. Regression analyses were completed to assess the relationship between all evaluation methods. Results: There was a statistically significant correlation between self‐assessment ability and the waxing assessment but no significant correlation between self‐assessment ability and the other evaluation methods. Conclusion: Our results showed that the introduction of self‐assessments in dental anatomy waxing was correlated with successful waxing skills. Furthermore, a relevant finding is that students who received higher classifications were also capable of doing better self‐assessments. These findings provide evidence that impacts dental curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: A theory‐practice gap in pre‐doctoral dental education is a common source of stress for dental students. An interactive, small‐group, case‐based activity was designed to bridge the gap between pre‐clinical and clinical experiences. The aim of our study was to assess the effectiveness of the case‐based activity by evaluating students' comfort level in operative procedures. Materials and Methods: Over 5 years, a total of 172 second‐year students from the classes of 2017 through 2021 participated in the case‐based activity delivered after the completion of the core operative dentistry course. The exercise included a pre‐activity online quiz, an in‐class case‐based session and a laboratory exercise. Students' self‐reported comfort levels in performing operative procedures were collected by surveys at three different times. They included the post‐course survey distributed after the completion of the core operative dentistry course, the post‐activity survey distributed after the completion of the case‐based activity, and the follow‐up survey distributed after students completed their first operative procedures in clinic. Results: There was a 93% response rate. The average rating of all eight statements revealed statistically significant increase in students' comfort level after completing the case‐based activity and after performing their first operative procedures in the teaching practice. Conclusion: This observation suggests that the case‐based activity was effective in raising students' comfort levels. The activity may serve as an important tool in bridging the theory‐practice gap between pre‐clinical and clinical operative experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]