[Health economic aspects of dental medicine consultation and expert assessment by the health insurance medical service].

Within one year the Statutory Health Insurance Medical Service in Lower Saxony (Germany) gave expert opinion in 2,005 cases of treatment plans in dental medicine. The legal basis and structure of organisation are described as well as professional expertising criteria. Therapeutic schemes and estimations of treatment costs were used to ascertain the socioeconomic outcome of expert evaluation expressed the by exact equivalent in terms of money value. The single expert statement valued on average 2.230,-DM (approximately 1,500 US $) for an expertise recommending rejection of treatment cost coverage.