Influence of background music on stress reduction and impact on performances during students' simulation exercises.

Background: The acquisition of manual skills is essential in preclinical dental training. Background music improves the learning of many manual skills, though we found no data on the consequences of background music on preclinical manual skills training of dental students.

Objective: The first aim of this project was to explore whether listening to slow background music could reduce the stress of students when learning how to perform cavity preparations and restorations in a simulation laboratory.