Impact of an undergraduate dental research training program on evidence-based research outcomes

Dental schools play a critical role in public health by training oral health professionals to prevent, manage, and treat oral diseases. Academic research is essential to advancing the technologies and knowledge these professionals use to promote public health. More research opportunities are needed to drive progress in and promote oral health research. The University of Manitoba's BSc (Dent) program provides first- or second-year undergraduate dental students opportunities to pursue research while earning a BSc (Dent) degree alongside their Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) degree. In 2008, we reported on the general outcomes of this program at the University of Manitoba. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the research impact of the past 10 years (2016-2025) of the undergraduate BSc (Dent) training program at the University of Manitoba.

We assessed overall research impact on the current status, academic activities, and achievements of dental students from 2016 to 2025 using information obtained from the Dean's Office of the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry at the University of Manitoba. Records were compared to those from 1980 to 2005 at the same university. Citations of peer-reviewed publications were obtained by tracking Google Scholar until September 1, 2026.

In 2016-2025, 104 dental students enrolled in the BSc (Dent) research training program at the University of Manitoba with a cumulative average GPA of 3.65 ± 0.16, compared to 76 trainees enrolled from 1980 to 2005 with a cumulative average GPA of 3.45 ± 0.61. Research metric analysis over this time showed that the 104 DMD students in the BSc (Dent) program submitted or published 64 manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication with 731 total citations, 67 poster presentations, 26 oral presentations, and 16 awards/nominations.

The University of Manitoba trained more dental students in the BSc (Dent) research training program from 2016 to 2025 than from 1980 to 2005. Over the past 10 years, students achieved significant academic milestones, including publishing peer-reviewed articles (37%), delivering poster presentations (37%), oral presentations (15%), and receiving national awards or nominations (9%). These findings suggest that the structured, mentored research experiences provided by the BSc (Dent) program foster critical thinking, which could help these students practice evidence-based dentistry and engage early in academic dentistry and health research.