Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and retention of knowledge of two educational methods such as Mind Mapping and conventional teaching method among dental undergraduates.

Materials and Methods: This cross sectional comparative interventional study was carried out among final year dental undergraduates (n=80) at Rajarajeshwari Dental College & Hospital, Bangalore. Students were divided into two groups, Group A: Mind Mapping Group/ test group (40) and Group B: control group (40). A pretested questionnaire of 10 questions was used to asesess the knowledge at baseline, immediately after and a week after the intervention. Knowledge gain was the primary outcome variable and retention of the knowledge after a week is the secondary outcome.

Results: At the baseline the mean knowledge score was equal in both the group.  Immediately after intervention, the mean knowledge score in the control group increased to 8.8, whereas in the mind map group, it increased to 9.4 and the difference was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.003). One week after intervention, the mean score in the mind map group was significantly more than the text group (9.3 Vs 8.6; p = 0.003) .

Conclusion: The results of the study showed that mind mapping method was more effective as a teaching and learning method than the lecture based method