Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of physical exercises on dental students’ stress. Materials and Methods: A cross‐sectional online survey was conducted among undergraduate dental students at Riyadh Elm University and from various dental collages in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The major focus of the questioner was to compare the stress levels of students who practice physical exercise, and those who do not. Data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Version 23.0, SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). Results: Over half of the respondents reported they do not exercise. Most of the respondents reported that they would like exercise. The most stress-provoking domain was “workload” with a score of 2.69 ± 1.05 followed by “self-efficacy beliefs” which scored 2.57 ± 0.76 and “faculty and administration”. Students who did not practice physical exercise scored higher stress than those who did in all domains and items with significant differences in “patient treatment” domain (p<0.05) and “patient being late or not showing for their appointments” item (p<0.05). Conclusions: In conclusion, the majority of the students don’t know the benefit of exercise in reducing stress. Most of the reasons that caused stress among dental students were the workload. Moreover, students who don’t practice a physical exercise were more stressed than students who exercise regularly. Keywords: Stress, Dental student, Exercise.