Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Dental Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Doherty, N.J.G.
Right arrow Articles by Crakes, G.M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Doherty, N.J.G.
Right arrow Articles by Crakes, G.M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Economic Specification of Cost Estimates in Dental Programs

N.J.G. Doherty

Department of Behavioral Sciences and Community Health, University of Connecticut, School of Dental Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut 06032

G.M. Crakes

Department of Economics, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut 06515

This paper compares two approaches to the estimation of costs in dental care programs: a conventional approach and an approach based on theoretical expectations. The conventional approach typically uses a linear extrapolation of an average figure - e.g., cost per visit - over various program sizes and thus predicts constant costs. Constant costs are, however, theoretically implausible, and it should be anticipated that their use in program planning or analysis would generate biased estimates. This hypothesis is examined using annual costs and visits from a group of uniform clinics over a five-year period. Results show that costs calculated by the conventional method are underestimated at low volumes and increasingly overestimated at higher volumes. The findings, which illustrate how inefficiency can inadvertently be incorporated into program design, have implications for cost-effectiveness of dental care delivery in the public sector.

Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 64, No. 6, 922-924 (1985)
DOI: 10.1177/00220345850640061301
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?