Background: International emergence of community based clinical teaching has been attributed to drawbacks of conventional teaching methods restricted to dental schools. The rationale behind these outreach teaching schemes is to smoothen the progress of dental undergraduate students from a dental school environment where they are ‘taught’, to a clinic where they are more closely incorporated with what they will come across in an independent dental practice. To ensure that the designed teaching program is fit for its purpose it is important to understand the views of students who have trained at the unit. Aim: The aim of this paper is to report student perspectives and opinions on their experience at outreach teaching centre of K. M. Shah Dental College and Hospital. Subjects and Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire study was conducted among students who had undergone internship training programme at K.M. Shah Dental College and Hospital, Vadodara in academic year 201112. Percentage was used for statistical analysis. Results: Forty eight respondents indicated that the learning experience was helpful with their subsequent clinical careers. Respondents’ agreement with common likes was related to increased clinical autonomy and routine access to more equipment and dental materials while the agreed dislikes were related to, inability to access patients requiring specific treatment items. e.g., crowns /RPDs and inaccessibility to certain specialized equipment. Conclusion: Implementation of communitybased clinical teaching program has been successful in helping the students with their careers while outlining the advantages and deficient aspects of the present programme. 

Keywords: Dental education; Dental students; India.