Relationships between price and two components of quality of dental services.

Failure to account for differences in service attributes can lead to biased estimates and erroneous inferences regarding relationships between price and quality in studies of the dental care delivery system. This study examined relationships between prices of several common dental procedures and two components of the structure and process dimensions used in quality of care assessments. Results from ordinary least squares regression analysis demonstrated a significant positive relationship between price and an index of technical quality for two restorative services provided by general practitioners, even when controlling for market area characteristics. Additional analyses revealed that prices charged by general practitioners for specific services typically were lower on average and demonstrated greater variation than those charged by specialists for the same procedures. These findings highlight the need to consider service differentiation, including quality variation, in empirical studies involving the pricing of dental services.