Background/aim: Dental students' learning approaches and perceptions of their educational environment vary across different academic years. The present study aimed to analyze dental students' learning approaches and their perception of the educational environment across four years of education. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based descriptive study among 354 Bachelor of Dental Surgeon (BDS) students from all four academic years of a medical institution from February to March 2024. We used the ASSIST (Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students) short-form questionnaire to analyze the learningapproaches and the DREEM (Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure) questionnaire to analyze perceptions of the educational environment. Self-administered Google Forms were used to collect data, which was analyzed using descriptive statistics and compared between groups with unpaired t-tests. Results: Third-year students demonstrated the highest deep learning approach (mean 24.67 ± 2.74), while strategic learning approaches showed an improvement in the second year (mean 22.95 ± 4.10) and then declined in the fourth year. The mean score of the surface approach remained stable across the years. Gender-based analysis showed that females used more strategic approaches than males (p = 0.042). The students attributed the highest confidence in the DREEM score to their academic self-perception (63.9%) and the lowest confidence to their social perception (52.17%). The overall DREEM score of 121/200 (50.5%), which was within the range of 101-150, is suggestive of a more positive educational environment than negative. Conclusion: The ASSIST and DREEM analyses reveal certain areas that require improvement, including student-centered teaching approaches, supportive educational environments, improved communication and stress management resources. This will help to improve knowledge retention and clinical skills, thereby directly improving the quality of patient care among dental students.