This study aims to examine (i) levels of dental students’ emotional intelligence (EI); (ii) associations of EI with gender, year of study, and type of graduated high school; and (iii) associations of EI with average scores of knowledge, laboratory skills, and clinical performance. Of 122 5th and 6th year dental students, academic year 2014, Prince of Songkla University, 116 students had agreed to participate in the study and were included in analysis. Each dental student completed the Department of Mental Health’s Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (DMH-EI). The questionnaire comprised of 52 self-assessment items, 9 domains identified as self-control, sympathy, responsibility, selfmotivation, problem-solving, relationship, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and happiness. Descriptive statistics were used to describe distribution of overall and sub EI scores. Statistical analyses were carried out using Independent-samples T-test, Pearson’s correlation and Chi-square to evaluate associations between EI with average scores as well as other factors. In this study, mean total EI score was 161.72 ± 13.78. Compared to norm-reference score, all sub EI score was in a normal range, except for self-control, which was above the norm. DMH-happiness scores of the 6th were higher than the 5th year dental students (p = 0.039). DMH-sympathy scores in female were higher than male (p = 0.046), while DMH-sympathy (p = 0.011) and DMH-responsibility (p = 0.012) scores of dental students graduated from public schools were higher than those graduated from private schools. DMHproblem- solving (r = 0.297; p < 0.01), DMH-self-esteem (r = 0.277; p < 0.01), and DMH-relationship
(r = 0.199; p < 0.05) scores were positively correlated with average clinical grades. This study indicates that some aspects of EI is associated with a noncognitive factor associated with dental students’ clinical performance.