Dental students’ perceptions and preferences regarding two teaching methods for TMJ anatomy, TMDs, and prosthodontic treatment approaches: a randomized teaching-sequence study

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) anatomy,temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) and occlusal splint therapy involve complex concepts.This study aimed to compare dental students’ perceptions of theoretical and practical teaching methods for TMJ related topics and to evaluate their preferences regarding the most effective and ideal teaching approach. This study included 83 third-year dental students at Sakarya University and used a within-subject design with a randomized teaching sequence.All participants received both teaching methods on the same day, and randomization determined only the order of teaching. Participants were randomly allocated to two teaching sequences.Group 1 (n=42) received theoretical teaching followed by practical teaching whereas Group 2 (n=41) received practical teaching followed by theoretical teaching.Both methods covered the same educational content. The 17-item questionnaire assessed students’ perceptions and preferences.Students completed the questionnaire immediately after receiving both teaching methods.Chi-square goodness-of-fit, Wilcoxon signed-rank, Mann–Whitney U, and mixed ANOVA tests were used. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. A total of 83 students participated, including 52 females(62.7%) and 31 males(37.3%). Practical teaching received a significantly higher mean evaluation score than theoretical teaching (4.06 ± 0.88vs.3.95 ± 0.81; Z=−2.374,p=0.018). The majority of students perceived the integrated approach combining theoretical and practical teaching as both the most effective method for learning the topic(61/83) and the ideal teaching approach (65/83),with both preference distributions differing significantly from equal expected proportions across the three response options (chi-square goodness-of-fit tests,p < 0.001 for both).No statistically significant difference was observed in total evaluation scores between students who received theoretical teaching first and those who received practical teaching first(U=847.500,p=0.902). After receiving both teaching methods, students retrospectively rated practical teaching slightly higher than theoretical teaching. However, most students preferred an integrated approach combining theoretical and practical teaching as both the most effective and ideal teaching approach. No statistically significant difference in students’ evaluations was observed between two teaching sequences. Since an integrated teaching condition was not directly evaluated in this study this finding reflects students’ stated preferences rather than evidence of greater educational effectiveness. ClinicalTrials.gov(NCT07821918).First submitted on 10 September 2026 and first posted on 16 September 2026.Retrospectively registered.