Aim

The dentist must develop skills that will enable him to succeed in his profession. Currently, students focus on the development of technical skills, leaving behind the development of soft skills. The aim of this systematic review is to describe which are the soft skills with the greatest influence on dental practice and their level of development within the academic training of dental students.

Materials and methods

This research corresponds to a systematic, descriptive, documentary, and retrospective review of the literature. The PICO strategy was applied in the systematization of the documentary sources and the formulation of the research question. The following search terms were used for the Spanish and English languages: soft skills, communication, thinking, dental students. Articles in English and Spanish published between 2000 and 2023 were selected.

Results

26 articles were included that showed that the most important skills were: communication skills, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and teamwork; and they also identified that students at the beginning of the academic degree present lower levels of development of these skills.

Conclusions

The studies made it possible to identify the influence of soft skills in dental practice and the development of these skills in the academic field, which have given favorable results in the practice of the profession.