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Background: Early clinical exposure (ECE) is a teaching–learning methodology which promotes the acquaintance of dental students to patients during their initial 1st year of learning. It comprehends in a socioclinical perspective which supplements learning of correlation of health and disease as well as the role of the clinician. Materials and Methods: Study population includes a Cohort of 96 students of 1st year of Bachelor of Dental Sciences (I BDS). From I BDS, 48 students (Group A = interventional group) were selected as cases and 48 as controls (Group B = control group) by simple random sampling. Group A students were exposed to a module of ECE prepared in a clinical/hospital setting. Group B students were exposed to didactic learning of the selected content of syllabus. After intervention, the students' understanding of the topic for both Group A and B was evaluated by a prepared questionnaire (posttest). The effectiveness of this adjunct learning tool ECE was calculated using the absolute learning gain (ALG), relative learning gain (RLG), and normalized gain. Results: The significantly enhanced posttest score was observed in Group A (7.72 ± 1.42) as compared to Group B (4.08 ± 0.64). The ALG, RLG, and normalized gain were higher with ECE as an adjunct learning tool as compared to didactic learning. On analysis of the perceptions after feedback, it was observed that overall, 92.05% of the students strongly agreed that the ECE was a very appreciable, practically oriented teaching–learning tool and validated the better learning experience. Conclusion: ECE could be a better and effective adjunct teaching–learning tool in the dental discipline.

The knowledge of anatomy plays an integral role in the education and practice of health care professionals. Cadaveric dissection is the most reliable method to teach the gross anatomy since centuries. Hands-on-educational experiences on cadavers can also stimulate student interest, increase knowledge retention and enhance development of clinical skills. Common problems faced during anatomy dissection are non-availability of individual instructor for each table, Crowding of students in dissection owing to lack of clear, timely and uniform instructions. Hence, the purpose of our study is to evolve a modality that will increase efficiency of dissection, make it more clinically relevant and make students enthusiastically participate in dissection. This modality will contribute more to overall better understanding of human anatomy within limited time period. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To study the effectiveness of audio-visual aids followed by structured manual instruction in dissection hall teaching and to compare the student’s learning gain between conventional and modified dissection hall teaching. OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS: During the study period two hundred students were present in First MBBS, anatomy department. Out of these all two hundred students fulfilled the inclusion criteria and participated in the study. Mean post test score of study group was2.84±1.46 where as mean pre test score of control Group was3.7±1.8showing significant difference. The post test score of the study group was almost double the post test score of control group. This finding is statistically very significant. CONCLUSION: Audio-visual aids, structured schedules, and cadaveric dissection were found to be effective in dissection hall teaching in anatomy. It was found to be more effective than conventional method with regard to understanding of the structure, its placement and building of the concepts.