Dental Service Cost Analysis Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing

Abstract

This research has the objective to analyze dental service costs of the case study dental clinic using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC). The study was conducted in teaching clinic where dental services were provided by undergraduate-level dentistry students under the supervision of the teachers of Dentistry Faculty, and where there were also dental assistants on hand to provide service support. The research studied only five treatment procedures with a maximum frequency of service use, cumulatively totaling 80%, according to the Pareto principle. The research started from studying various activities in the processes of providing each category of dentistry service. Then, the dental service costs using TDABC were analyzed by estimating from two key parameters: the capacity cost rate and the time taken for each activity of the treatment procedure. The study found that Sealant Compounds, Tooth Extraction, Preventive Resin Restoration, Composite Fillings and Stainless Steel Crown had treatment costs of 623, 594, 669, 642 and 761 Thai Baht/treatment respectively. This research enabled the case study dental clinic to identify its costs for each treatment procedure, and also calculate profit and loss by comparison with income from service users. These data could also be used to determine more appropriate service charges for each category of treatment.