Dentoalveolar surgery education in Chinese undergraduate dental schools: a national survey of curriculum structure, simulation training and assessment

Dentoalveolar surgery is a core component of undergraduate dental education; however, evidence regarding its implementation in Chinese dental schools remains limited. This study investigated curriculum structure, teaching methods, simulation training, and assessment strategies for undergraduate dentoalveolar surgery education in China. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among Chinese institutions offering undergraduate dentistry programs. The questionnaire was adapted from validated UK frameworks, reviewed by five experts, and pilot-tested before use. Of the 109 public institutions approved by the Ministry of Education to offer undergraduate dentistry programs during 2021–2023, 49 returned valid questionnaires (participation rate: 45.0%). The sample encompassed all 28 institutions with an official discipline ranking of C − or above in the most recent national evaluation and covered all seven major geographic regions of China. Data were collected on curriculum models, course timing, teaching hours, content coverage, practical and digital teaching approaches, and assessment methods. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize institutional characteristics and variations. Of the 49 participating institutions, 47 (95.92%) delivered dentoalveolar surgery as part of an oral and maxillofacial surgery course, and 37 (75.51%) offered it in the fourth academic year. For both theoretical and practical teaching, the most commonly reported duration was 10–20 h., although substantial inter-institutional variation was observed, ranging from 4 to 36 h for theory and from 4 to over 36 h for practice. Core content included tooth extraction, local anesthesia, impacted mandibular third-molar extraction, and management of post-extraction healing and complications. A progressive practical-training pathway involving instrument training, phantom-head simulation, and peer local-anesthesia practice was reported by 30 institutions (61.22%). Simulation training for complex procedures was less common, including mandibular impacted third-molar extraction (53.06%), root or fractured-root removal (42.86%), and other impacted-tooth extraction (36.73%). Videos (95.92%) and animations (79.59%) were widely used, whereas interactive virtual programs were reported by only 24.49% of institutions. Problem-based learning was used by 71.43% of institutions, followed by case-based learning (42.86%) and flipped-classroom teaching (34.69%). Summative theoretical examinations were nearly universal (95.92%), while practical skills assessment (59.18%) and phantom-head assessment (48.98%) were less consistently implemented. Undergraduate dentoalveolar surgery education in China has an established framework centred on tooth extraction and local anesthesia, with broad use of practical and digital teaching methods. However, marked variation persists in teaching hours, complex-procedure simulation, use of interactive digital tools, and practical assessment. Future curriculum development may consider competency-guided learning objectives, strengthened simulation and case-based training, and more comprehensive assessment strategies; their educational effectiveness requires empirical evaluation.