Applying business principles to a prosthodontic practice.

Determining the optimum fee for prosthodontic services is difficult. Most methods of determining fees are based on comparisons with other practitioners or with established fee schedules. However, comparisons alone are inadequate because they ignore the practitioner's underlying costs. Since it costs each individual practitioner different amounts to produce dentistry, dental fees should be highly individualized. This article presents a model for evaluating fees for prosthodontic services based on both underlying costs and intangible variables such as the dentist's skill, experience, and quality of care.