Littleton P A
J Dent Educ. 1979 Feb;43(2):101-6.
The majority of economic research on the health care system has focused on the medical sector to the near exclusion of other components, such as the dental sector. Based on the size, scope, and costs associated with the medical sector, this is understandable. However, this health research focus has often resulted in the casual and perhaps inappropriate generalization of medical findings to the dental sector. The purpose of this paper is to identify and review some of the differences between the profession and practice of dentistry and that of medicine. Differences discussed are those that exist in the respective education systems, work forces, delivery systems, disease entities, patients' perceptions of medical and dental needs, and the financing of services demanded. Researchers and policy leaders alike are urged to weight the significance of these differences as they consider the applicability of medical sector findings to dentistry.
大多数关于医疗保健系统的经济研究都集中在医疗领域，几乎排除了其他组成部分，如牙科领域。鉴于医疗领域的规模、范围和相关成本，这是可以理解的。然而，这种对健康研究的关注往往导致将医学研究结果随意且可能不恰当地推广到牙科领域。本文的目的是识别和回顾牙科与医学在专业和实践方面的一些差异。所讨论的差异存在于各自的教育体系、劳动力、服务提供体系、疾病实体、患者对医疗和牙科需求的认知以及所需服务的融资等方面。敦促研究人员和政策制定者在考虑医疗领域研究结果对牙科的适用性时，权衡这些差异的重要性。
