NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING TRAINING DURING UNIVERSITY DENTISTRY TEACHING: HOW DOES MEMORY RETENTION WORK?

¹ Medical Neurolinguistic Programming, Adjunct Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Milano, Milan, Italy
² Dental School, Albanian University, Tirana, Albania

Correspondence to:

Annals of Stomatology 2026 September-December 6(3): Ahead of Print
https://doi.org/10.69129/stomatol/2026v6iss3_1

Received: 14 October 2026 Accepted: 12 November 2026

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Abstract

Effective communication, goal-setting, and time management are essential in dental practice. The University of Ferrara introduced Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) seminars into the dentistry curriculum to enhance communication and professional development skills. Seminars were delivered annually during the second semester of the third year of the dentistry degree program. For assessment purposes, a 20-item multiple-choice questionnaire was administered to 76 dental students; third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students who had attended the seminars were compared with first- and second-year students who had not yet attended. Students exposed to the seminars achieved significantly higher scores than controls (13.15 vs 8.71 correct answers). Scores declined progressively with time from seminar attendance, from 18.00 in third-year students to 9.05 in fifth-year students. No significant difference was observed between fifth-year students and controls. NLP seminars improved short-term knowledge acquisition, but retention decreased over time. Periodic reinforcement and the use of active recall and spaced repetition may enhance long-term retention.

Keywords: communication skills, dental education, dental students, knowledge retention, neuro-linguistic programming, professional development, spaced repetition, time management