Differences in pre-internship academic performance between pandemic and post-pandemic cohorts of dental students

Abstract

Introduction: The pandemic substantially transformed dental education, leading to changes in teaching, assessment, and clinical training modalities. However, evidence regarding its relationship with academic performance remains heterogeneous, with limited information on this indicator before hospital internships in Latin American contexts. Objective: To compare academic performance for admission to hospital internships among dental students at a public university who received their education during the pandemic (2022 cohort) and under post-pandemic conditions (2025 cohort). Materials and Methods: A quantitative, observational, retrospective, and comparative study was conducted using institutional academic records. A census of 152 students was included: 75 from the 2022 cohort and 77 from the 2025 cohort. Academic performance was operationalized through the final cumulative grade point average, calculated as the credit-weighted average of all courses completed. The main comparison was performed using Welch's t-test. Hedges' g was estimated as a standardized measure of the difference, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used as a sensitivity analysis. Results: The final academic average was 14.37 +/- 0.59 in 2022 and 15.20 +/- 0.72 in 2025. The mean difference was 0.84 points (95% CI: 0.63-1.05), with t(145.77) = 7.83; p less than 0.001, and Hedges' g = 1.26 (95% CI: 0.91-1.61). The sensitivity analysis yielded consistent results (U = 1113; p less than 0.001). Conclusions: Differences in academic performance before hospital internships were observed between the cohorts studied, with a higher final academic average in the 2025 cohort compared with the 2022 cohort. These findings describe differences between cohorts from distinct periods and do not establish a causal relationship with the pandemic context.