The relative value units of drugs and materials costs for dental procedures

Objectives: Drugs and materials account for 15% of the costs in dental services. We examined their relative value units (RVUs) to establish the resource-based relative value scales for dental procedures in the future. Methods: Upon recommendation of the National Dental Association of the Republic of China, a Technical Consulting Group (TCG) was formed to select 25 dental services and procedures (S/Ps) to be investigated. We asked the TCG to draw up the list of necessary but non-common drugs and materials used for each S/P. A TCG member with accounting training approved the list. We then sampled four dental clinics to examine the costs required for each of the 25 S/Ps and transferred them to RVUs. The results thus obtained were used to explore the RVUs of the drugs and materials costs of the non-surveyed S/Ps by TCG members separately. Results: The RVUs showed excellent correlation between the four dental clinics (P