Abstract
The Mini-Clinical Examination (Mini-CEX) is a new student assessment method. This succinct report aims to evaluate the efficacy of the Mini-CEX in enhancing dental students' skills in caries diagnosis. This study is a brief report evaluating dental students' skills in caries diagnosis using the Mini-CEX method at Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2022. Fifty students were randomly divided into two equal groups by using simple sampling. The Mini-CEX group underwent three sessions at 1-week intervals, while the conventional group had a single assessment session. The scoring for the assessment was as follows: 1-3 (lower than expected), 4-6 (borderline), 7-9 (as expected), and 10 (higher than expected). An independent t-test and nonparametric Mann-Whitney test were conducted to compare the effectiveness of the Mini-CEX method versus the conventional method. The level of P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Significant differences were observed in three areas: determining the risk of caries (P = 0.028), detecting the speed of caries (P = 0.004), and presenting a treatment plan (P < 0.001). In addition, a significant statistical difference was noted between the third and first sessions (P < 0.001), as well as between the second and first sessions of the Mini-CEX (P = 0.001). However, no significant difference was found between the other sessions. The students' skills showed improvement during the third session of the Mini-CEX, specifically in determining the risk of caries, detecting the speed of caries, and providing a treatment plan. However, the mean skill scores in the Mini-CEX and conventional methods did not demonstrate a significant difference.