Aim <p>Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are common in occupations that require repetitive movements and static postures, negatively impacting daily life. Procedures such as cavity preparation, root canal treatment, extraction, and scaling performed during dental procedures increase the risk of MSDs by causing prolonged postural stress. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of weekly exercise duration and clinical or preclinical work hours on pain scores in dental students, and to determine the relationships between exercise type and pain sites, MSD complaint type, and preferred treatment methods.</p> Subject and methods <p>The survey consisted of 10 questions regarding the students’ gender, grade level, weekly study time, areas of pain, visual analogue scale (VAS) pain scores, and weekly exercise duration. The survey was administered to second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students at the Faculty of Dentistry via Google Forms. Independent samples <i>t</i>-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for group comparisons, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine relationships between variables. The survey data were analyzed via SPSS 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).</p> Results <p>A total of 433 students (272 female, 161 male) participated in the survey. A total of 40.6% of the students reported not exercising regularly. The most frequently reported musculoskeletal complaint was pain, reported in 45.7% of the cases. The rate of pain was significantly greater in women than in men (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.05). The rate of pain was significantly lower in the students who exercised than in those who did not (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.05). An inverse correlation was found between the students’ total weekly exercise time and their pain levels.</p> Conclusion <p>While pain complaints were more common in women and students who did not exercise, the level of pain decreased as the duration of exercise increased.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>