Health economics-economic evaluation in dental public health

Economic evaluation provides a method of systematically comparing the costs and outcomes of alternative health care programmes. It is now used increasingly to provide planning information.Economic evaluation is necessary to produce the best health care and maximum benefit with minimum cost to the community based on available resources. Health economics is a branch of Economics concerned with issues related to scarcity in the allocation of health and health care. A key concept of health economics is the opportunity cost of a programme, which can be described as the value of the resource when it is put to its best alternative use. Therefore, health economics is about resource management –what is affordable and desirable and what is not. As the health of the population will not be improved just by spending more money on health care, the understanding of health economics is essential to properly implement the economic policies for the health care enhancements. Hence, the policy makers and the dental personnel should have adequate knowledge regarding the same for providing better health services.