A rapidly aging society with a low birthrate must pay serious attention to health economics. Economic evaluation is now an accepted method of appraising healthcare programmes designed to distribute health care efficiently. Although economic evaluation is widely used in the fields of medicine and pharmacy, its use in the field of dentistry is only now becoming popular worldwide. Moreover, it is no exaggeration to say that in Japan, economic evaluation in the field of dentistry is non-existent.
The purpose of this paper is to review previous studies of economic evaluation in the field of dentistry. This review reveals that these studies are of insufficient quality and have various problems. Whilst an understanding of economic evaluation in the field of dentistry is undeniably lacking, the need for it is clearly becoming more important and of increasing worldwide interest. The development of this understanding and a thorough study of economic evaluation in the field of dentistry are necessary.