Empathy dimensions and patient-centered care during dental training: a cross-sectional study

Empathy is a core component of patient-centered clinical care and plays an important role in communication quality and clinician–patient interactions. Evidence on how specific empathy dimensions are distributed across different stages of dental education remains limited, particularly when total empathy scores are considered alone. This cross-sectional study included 358 undergraduate dental students enrolled in the first and fifth years of training. Empathy was assessed using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy–Student Version (JSPE-S), which comprises the Perspective Taking, Compassionate Care, and Standing in the Patient’s Shoes subscales. Sociodemographic and educational variables were recorded. Group comparisons and multivariable linear regression analyses were performed to examine associations between year of study and empathy subscale scores. Total JSPE-S scores did not differ significantly between first- and fifth-year students. Similarly, no significant difference was observed in the Perspective Taking subscale. In contrast, Compassionate Care scores were lower among fifth-year students, whereas Standing in the Patient’s Shoes scores were higher. In adjusted analyses, year of study remained independently associated with these two empathy subdimensions after controlling for age, sex, income level, prior empathy-related education and previous communication training. Overall empathy levels were comparable across stages of dental education; however, specific empathy dimensions differed by year of study. These findings highlight the value of examining empathy as a multidimensional construct and suggest that reliance on total empathy scores alone may overlook meaningful variation in empathic orientation during dental training.