Introduction
Learning surgical skills is a key requirement for all operative medical specialties. Basic surgical skills such as knot tying and suturing used to be learned on patients in the operating room. Learning these techniques on models is associated with the advantages of a more suitable learning environment for learners and better patient safety [When training surgical skills, the dominant hand (DH) is predominantly trained [Traditionally, surgical skills are taught using the Halsted method (“see one, do one, teach one”). In this method, learners should be able to perform the procedure themselves after observing the procedure to be learned. In the next step, they should be able to teach this procedure [In addition to the standardized teaching of surgical skills, it is necessary to assess these skills and thus learning gains as objectively as possible [This study examines for the first time the learning gains that can be achieved by dental students using their DH on the model for the open knot tying and suturing technique after training with the DH, the NDH, and by AT that is not specific surgical training. In addition, this study also identifies those learners who were able to achieve the greatest learning gains. The research question investigated here is whether similar learning gains can be achieved with the DH by intermanual transfer after training the NDH or an AT when compared to the training of the dominant hand. This question is relevant to better understand and better quantify modern models used for surgical skills teaching methods in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency. The results of this work will provide insights into the intermanual transfer of motor skills when learning basic surgical skills and will quantify the effectiveness of such a transfer as objectively as possible.