Less Is More? The Long-Term Health and Cost Consequences Resulting from Minimal Invasive Caries Management

Abstract

Caries is a chronic disease, with long-term sequelae, often initiated early in life. Managing caries and carious lesions often has long-term consequences. These consequences involve the health (or its absence) generated by a caries management strategy, but also costs. This article discusses the long-term health and costs consequences resulting from different caries management strategies. It is demonstrated why, and under which circumstances, minimal invasive caries management may be beneficial for patients, but also for health services, with regard to both health gained and costs generated. Moreover, possible factors influencing the cost-effectiveness of different caries management strategies will be discussed.

Keywords: Caries; Costs; Decision making; Economics; Effectiveness; Modeling; Trials.