[Sinking your teeth into economic evaluations: application and importance in oral health]

Health economics deals with issues about the use of scarce resources in healthcare. An important branch of health economics concerns economic evaluations, which consist of a comparison of the costs and effects of 2 or more treatments. The role and importance of economic evaluations in oral care are increasing but are not yet as evident as in other areas of healthcare (such as pharmacy). An economic evaluation provides a broad picture of the costs and health benefits of a particular diagnostic or treatment strategy, resulting in a cost-effectiveness ratio (expressed, for example, as costs per quality-adjusted life year gained). The results are intended for use in policy-making, such as decisions about in- or exclusion from the basic benefits package. To date, only a limited number of economic evaluations of oral care have been carried out, mainly focused on caries. It is important to be able to demonstrate that the treatment provided in oral care is cost-effective. Oral care may put itself in a vulnerable position in the distribution of scarce resources when the costeffectiveness of its treatments is uncertain.