Peer Mentoring and Gamification Enhance Dental Academics: Insights from the–DENTEST Platform

<p> </p><p> </p><p>The integration of gamification and peer mentoring represents an innovative approach to improving student motivation and performance in dental education. This study evaluated the impact of a mobile-based platform, <italic>DenSync</italic>, and its embedded gamified module <italic>DENTEST</italic>, on the learning outcomes of undergraduate dental students. A total of 142 first- and second-year BDS students participated in a pre–post interventional design, while a larger randomized experiment (n = 4,202) tested the gamified components of <italic>DENTEST</italic> (points and badges). In the first phase, mean knowledge scores improved significantly from 65.56 ± 12.58 % to 89.37 ± 12.45 % (t(140)=14.35, p < 0.001). In the large-scale trial, badge-based gamification increased question-attempt rates by 37 % and exam performance by 4.5 %, with top users achieving up to 23 % higher scores. These findings demonstrate that peer-assisted gamification fosters self-managed learning, engagement, and knowledge retention in dentistry. Incorporating systems like <italic>DenSync</italic> into curricula could enhance traditional teaching through interactive and experiential digital learning.</p><p> </p>