Evaluating Dental Health Programs

Abstract

Methods for evaluating dental programs have been classified into: Those which measure the efficiency of the administrative organization in producing activities designed to promote dental health. Those which measure public response to a unit volume of administrative activity. Those which measure volume of dental service dispensed. Those which measure the effects of a program on dental health. This gross classification is used as a working- base from which to approach a study of the meaning, usefulness, and limitations of various methods. The apparent usefulness of the findings as yardsticks for evaluating dental programs, and the recognition of some of their limitations, the obvious imperfections in our understanding of the meaning of each technique, and the realization of the exceedingly variable conditions under which a program may be initiated, administered, and supported, all serve to emphasize the need for further study of evaluation methods and to demonstrate the folly of stabilizing our present knowledge of the appraisal of dental health programs through standardization.